Pothole Watch Midhurst: Uneven roads damage cars and endanger motorists

Residents and motorists say roads all over both districts are uneven and dotted with potholes, which damage cars and endanger drivers.

The Fairway was a common complaint, with one resident saying Highways team never properly repair the damaged roads and the potholes that are repaired are broken again a week or so later.

The A272, from Totton Bridge towards Petersfield and Rogate was also a source of trouble for some residents, as well as Grange Road, near the vets.

Fixmystreet.com, a website through which residents can flag potholes in need of repair to the local authority, lists dozens of pothole complaints for Midhurst, Petworth and the surrounding areas. Some of the listings date back to the beginning of the week, but others go back to the beginning of the month; it is not always clear which have been repaired.

Writing about the state of the A272, one user said: “Both East and West bound the carriageway is destroyed and liable to cause a serious accident (...) In 14 months I have had to buy four new wheels, 12 tyres and two new front wheel bearings all due the negligence of the public highway.”

Reporting on potholes on the same road, on the same day, another user said: “Westbound side is greater than 500mm wide, Eastbound is 400mm but at least 70mm deep. Both cause vehicles to veer into the opposite carriageway. They have been there for longer than 30 days and are continuing to deteriorate.”

West Sussex County Council has been contacted for comment, but a council website sheds some light on why potholes might seem more numerous and more severe at the moment:

"The extreme weather over the past year has led to a rapid deterioration in the quality of road networks and a higher-than-normal incidence of potholes,” it says.

“Large weather fluctuations make road surfaces expand, contract and expand again, causing cracks and new potholes to form.”

In a bid to crackdown on potholes, the county council has also increased the number of ‘Velocity Patcher’ units, intended to repair road surfaces faster and more effectively. ‘Find and Fix gangs’ have also been introduced and deployed to areas where road surfaces are especially poor.