East Preston pothole-ridden road an increasing cause for concern: 'Inefficient and demonstrably unacceptable'

Residents in Vermont Drive are facing an ongoing battle over their ‘serious pothole concerns’.

The issue relates to the road from its western junction with Sea Road to its eastern junction with Homelands Avenues and Seawaves Close.

Local resident, Peter Galloway said: "This is a much used residential highway, serving not only the residents of Vermont Drive and its six ‘spur’ roads but also carries the traffic from both the large Angmering-on-Sea and Lavinia estates where drivers travelling south into the village or west out of the village would use this thoroughfare.

“The condition of the road surface has deteriorated badly in recent years. We have made representations to the highway authority whose policy has been simply to react to problems and not make any attempt at preventative maintenance.”

West Sussex County Council confirmed Vermont Road has been identified as a ‘potential site’ for long-term, ‘large scale resurfacing’.

"However this will need to be prioritised and programmed against other roads across the county that also require resurfacing,” a spokesperson said.

County councillor Roger Elkins attended a site meeting with residents in November.

“We pointed out not only the problems that existed then but also the sites which would without doubt become problems during the winter,” Peter added. “And so it has come to pass.”

After a ‘long delay’ in treating the ‘very severe’ potholes, a council contractor appeared to deal with them on January 25 to deal with them. However, the state of the road remained poor 16 hours after the contractor had left the site.

Peter continued: “The residents and users of Vermont Drive are understandably exasperated at the state of the road surface which has been the subject of complaints for at least the last decade. This road is the most complained about highway in the village, no doubt because of the high volume of users and the large number of issues that need to be addressed.”

‘As council tax-payers’, many of the residents object to ‘subscriptions being wasted’ through ‘incomplete, inefficient and demonstrably unacceptable workmanship’.

They say also alleged that contractors never take away debris that comes out of a pothole, ‘hence large parts of our kerbs are littered with detritus’.

They said damage to vehicles is becoming increasingly likely and individuals could ‘conceivably be hit by debris thrust up by a passing vehicle’.

Peter said: “Our fear is that we shall once again be asked to suffer the dangerous and totally unsatisfactory situation we have been forced to tolerate for many years.”

Following an inspection of Vermont Road by one of its highway stewards, the county council ‘arranged for works to be carried out to complete the required repairs’.

A spokesperson added: “We have been made aware of concerns from local residents relating to the completed work and will ensure that these works are inspected, and where required, any further works are scheduled accordingly.

“The most effective way for members of the public to report defects on the highway is through our online reporting tool. All reports will be investigated and repair works arranged in accordance with our highway inspection manual, which sets out how we keep the highway network safe in West Sussex.”

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