Anger over Rye's crumbling roads

Now one resident is taking legal action against East Sussex County Council after his car was damaged when it hit a deep pot hole.

The county council has said money has been allocated to sort out the problem but people are asking – when is it going to happen?

It is months since the icy weather left many roads in a terrible state and nothing has been done to put it right.

The state of the roads was one of the main concerns raised by Rye resident's at last week's Annual Town Meeting.

Former Rye newsagent Reg Emson is now suing the county council and it may open the floodgates for further claims.

Reg said: "My car was damaged when it hit a large, deep pothole on the A268 between Playden and Bowlers Town."

The county council rejected the compensation claim saying that "in the light of the exceptional weather conditions and unforeseen and sudden deterioration of the road surface" the council had taken "all reasonable action" to address the situation.

A county council spokesperson said the council has applied for an extra 1 million of funding to repair roads, but Rye's county councillor Keith Glazier has admitted it is not certain as to how far that amount will go to address what is a county wide problem.

Reg Emson says not enough was done in the early days before the potholes became bigger and a real problem.

He commented: "In my business days, attempting and failing to stem the flow of anything disadvantageous would have resulted in the failure of my business and no amount of whining about conditions would have prevented that.

"The council's inaction has cost me a lot of hard earned cash. I imagine I am not the only one that the council has use this `Not my fault Gov' argument with."

Resident Mike Collins said: "All we are hearing is excuses – the fact is that I and others pay a large road tax charge each year which we are told is for the upkeep of the roads we use.

"There are better roads in so called Third World countries than there are in the centre of Rye."

Rye MP Michael Foster says help is on the way with the Chancellor announcing a 100 million fund to help plug pot holes across the country. Of that 1 million is going to Sussex.

Mr Foster said: "The big freeze inflicted massive damage on our roads and has left a moonscape of potholes.

"We want to ensure there is no repeat of this in the future. I will be encouraging the Council to focus on more regular resurfacing and maintenance work."