Plans 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 are focusing 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 will see an estimated area of 77km (48 miles) of carriageway maintained using this method. Due to limited resources available, footway works have been 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 include 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 will continue to focus on keeping the network (carriageways and footways) safe and serviceable through targeted reactive maintenance. This includes repairing potholes, addressing safety defects and responding to urgent issues as they arise. While this approach cannot prevent long-term deterioration it is essential for managing immediate risks to road users.
We estimate that we will fill around 18,000 potholes in 2025/26. We are predicting a lower number of pothole repairs for 2025/26 than recent years. This is based on the drop between 2023/24 and 2024/25 and an assumption that there will be another fall due to recent increases in the quality and size of pothole repairs meaning they are less likely to fail and need a re-repair. However, making estimates is very difficult since the number of potholes that form is affected by many factors including weather, traffic and the impact of preventative works. Therefore, the margin of error for pothole estimates is large.
Please note, that we will repair all potholes that meet the criteria for safety defects regardless of how many there are.
