Funding for 2025/26
Making the most of the funding available
To allow us to make difficult decisions about where our limited resources can have the greatest impact, the council have adopted a strategy for managing the decline of carriageways in a way that minimises the impact on users.
We recognise that we must prioritise our A and B roads alongside the non-principal roads that make up our resilient network, as they are considered essential for emergency services, public transport and economic activity. We will apply smaller scale cost-effective treatments and reactive repairs to less-used local roads, such as U roads, to keep them safe and serviceable.
This approach aligns with our Asset Management Strategy and supports the objectives set out in East Sussex’s Local Transport Plan 4 (2024–2050) - ensuring we continue to maintain a safe, resilient and sustainable network, even under financial constraint.
Specific plans for 2025/26
Surface dressing
In 2025-26 we focused our planned maintenance (capital funding) on a surface dressing programme. This is a cost-effective method that is intended to extend the life of roads that are showing signs of surface wear but remain structurally sound. Patch and dress allows us to maintain more of our network to a safe and serviceable standard while delivering value for money.
The final programme for 2025-26 saw an estimated area of 77km (48 miles) of carriageway maintained using this method. Due to limited resources available, footway works were restricted to those funded by development utilising Section 106 funds or where funding is secured through Road Safety.
The surface dressing programme can be found on the East Sussex Highways website: East Sussex surface dressing programme.
Repairs to bridges
Key structure repairs in 2025-26 included works to:
- Newhaven Swing Bridge, Newhaven
- Iden Bridge, between Iden and Tenterden
- St Helens Road, Hastings (landslip), and
- Church Lane Railway Bridge, Barcombe (using commuted sums from the Historic Rail Estate).
Potholes and other safety defects
Utilising our revenue funds, East Sussex Highways continued to focus on keeping the network (carriageways and footways) safe and serviceable through targeted reactive maintenance. This included repairing potholes, addressing safety defects and responding to urgent issues as they arose. While this approach cannot prevent long-term deterioration it is essential for managing immediate risks to road users.
Please note, that we will repair all potholes that meet the criteria for safety defects regardless of how many there are.
