Worthing potholes a ‘fatality waiting to happen’

Colin Wigham, 50, lives in Melrose Avenue and has become exasperated with the state of the roads in his area.

He said driving down Tarring Road at night left his car bouncing into potholes that were invisible in the darkness.

“We’ve got holes down Tarring Road the size of craters, it looks like a third world country,” he said.

“I’ve lived in Worthing virtually all my life and this is the worst I’ve seen it.

“It’s a fatality waiting to happen for a cyclist or a motorcyclist.”

Mr Wigham’s complaints join a long-running campaign by Lib Dem councillors Bob Smytherman, Hazel Thorpe and Martin McCabe.

Mr Smytherman and Mr McCabe recently presented a pothole in Palatine Road with a birthday cake to celebrate two years since they first complained about it.

That pothole has since been filled in, but the councillors are unhappy with the quality of the repair and called for more to be done to combat the damaged surfaces.

Mrs Thorpe said loose stones were already visible around the Palatine Road hole and called for more consistency after some Tarring Roads were totally resurfaced.

She said filling in the holes to a lower level was a ‘false economy’ that would only lead to more repairs.

A spokesman for West Sussex County Council said it had repaired 1,334 potholes in Worthing during 2019. Temporary repairs, he said, were carried out to address ‘immediate concerns’ and repairs were guaranteed with the contractor, meaning any touch-ups are not at the public’s expense.

The spokesman said the council had invested £8.9million in 2019 treating 806,000sqm of roads in West Sussex.