Government Highways cuts see potholes grow in Crawley

Anyone using Crawley’s roads over recent months won’t have failed to notice the appalling state many of them are now in. Parts of Barnfield Road in particular seem to be more pot hole than road of late.

As most people will know, local services in Crawley are split between Crawley Borough Council and West Sussex County Council, with Highways forming part of the county council. My first-hand experience as a county councillor did much to reinforce my belief that many of West Sussex’s problems are self-inflicted, however the blame for the state of Crawley’s roads might not be solely laid to rest at County Hall.

Unlike Crawley Borough Council, much of West Sussex’s income still comes in the form of grant funding from central government. While local authorities can put their own funding towards Highways works, they receive ring-fenced funding for Highways in the form of the Highways Maintenance Block, Highways Maintenance Block Incentive Element, Integrated Transport Block (ITB), and additional pothole funding, introduced a few years back.

Since 2020, the Government’s Highways allocation to West Sussex has been cut from £26,921,000 to £20,898,000, a cash-terms cut of £6,023,000 or 22%. Worse, that rate is now fixed until 2025, leaving inflation to further cut the highways maintenance budget year-on-year.

While West Sussex are often keen to blame Crawley’s potholes on ‘clay soil’, most of us can remember a time when the roads didn’t seem to get worse every year. The soil hasn’t changed in that time, only our Government’s attitude to public services and national infrastructure.