VIDEO: Residents' anger over '˜horrendous' potholes

People living in St. Cuthmans Road expressed their anger over the ‘dangerous’ state of the road with potholes ‘the size of hands’ littered along the tarmac.

Janette Johns said she was one of a couple of disabled people in the area who was suffering extra pain each time she left her house.

The 58-year-old suffers with Fibromyalgia which causes pain all over the body.

She said: “It really affects my condition because I am being thrown around and bumped in the car and it causes me a great amount of pain.

“Going in and out of our road is just horrendous. I am bumping about all over the place.

“I am fearful every time we have to go somewhere because we’re up against these potholes everywhere.”

The holes first started appearing about a year ago.

Janette said they had got bigger and were now deep enough to fit her hand in.

She continued: “They have got so big and now people are driving up the grass verge in front of this lady’s home.

“Suppose its been raining, it fills them in and we can’t see them. Cars speed down here so fast, it’s dangerous.”

She said she heard a report on the radio about a girl who had died after her bike struck a pothole.

“I am worried this could happen to somebody else and I think they really need to get it sorted, it’s very dangerous,” she added.

Janette along with several other residents reported the problem to West Sussex County Council.

West Sussex Highways said its ‘Pothole Patrol gang’ was due to repair the road this week.

A council spokesman said: “The potholes in St Cuthman’s Road are due to be repaired by our ‘Pothole Patrol’ gang on Wednesday 8 March.

“The County Council has secured additional Pothole Action Funding this year and we have used this to fund patrol gangs, who are sent out to seek and find repairs.

“This is in addition to our normal gangs who repair reported defects that meet our intervention criteria.

“The gang today will be working in the St Cuthman’s and Shooting Fields area.

“St Cuthman’s road is a concrete road with a tarmac overlay and shallow holes have formed in the tarmac overlay (although the actual road construction below is sound).

“While the look and feel of the road are factors, our priority is to maintain the roads in a safe condition for road users and this is what we prioritise when allocating funding.

“Whilst we have a safety inspection regime to check for any defects on the highways and footways, we do actively encourage our customers to report any potholes or other issues they encounter via our online reporting tool Love West Sussex.

“In the last two months, over 99 per cent of all potholes reported were repaired within 28 days.”

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage

2) Like our Facebook page

3) Follow us on Twitter

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

Always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.