Our Highway Network

East Sussex County Council is responsible for maintaining most roads and pavements in the county.

Our highway network is vital for keeping local communities safe and connected, and for supporting the economic growth of the County. It is the most valuable publicly owned asset managed by East Sussex County Council and has a current value of around £5.54 billion.

Roads we look after

We repair and maintain most roads and pavements in East Sussex.

This includes:

cycleways
drains
potholes
road markings and signs
streetlights and traffic lights
trees, grass, hedges, and weeds
wildlife verges
bridges
winter gritting services

Search the map of roads we maintain.

Read more about East Sussex Highways services.

Roads we do not look after

We do not look after private or unadopted roads.

We also do not look after trunk roads. They are maintained by National Highways (previously Highways England). The trunk roads in East Sussex are:

A21 outside of Hastings
A26 between the A27 and Newhaven
A27 and most of the A259, east of Pevensey (excluding Hastings)

District and Borough councils collect litter and carry out street sweeping.

Our highway network

Lengths of highway, footways and cycleways in East Sussex:

A roads	372km
B and C roads	1009km
U roads	1994km
Total roads	3375km
Footways	2482km
Other public rights of way	763km
Cycleways	201km

In addition, East Sussex County Council manage the following highway assets:

2499 km of road markings
100,000 drains
505 km of ditches
766 grit bins
514 bridges
2 tunnels
246 retaining walls
43,695 road signs
40,000 safety bollards
26 hectares of wildlife verges and 20 hectares of meadow verges
55,000 individual trees (estimated)
50 ornamental shrub sites
4468 km of vegetated verges
35 km of hedges
37,500 streetlights
66 signal-controlled junctions
140 signal-controlled crossings.

Adopted and private roads

What are adopted roads?

East Sussex County Council inspect, repair and maintain adopted roads. All adopted roads are public unless restricted by the highway authority.

Other highways, such as Public Rights of Way (PROW), are not inspected or maintained to the same level.

Find adopted roads in East Sussex

Read about the process for how to adopt a road.

What are private roads?

Private roads have not been adopted by the County Council. The owner of the road has the responsibility to maintain them. The owner may be the residents of a road, a third party, or a developer. Owners can restrict access to private roads.

What are private streets?

Private streets are also known as unadopted public highways and are different to private roads. Private streets are also maintained by the owners rather than the County Council but are open to the public.

Road maintenance funding

Where does the funding come from and what is it spent on?

Funding for highway maintenance comes from Council tax, business rates and Government grants. Each year councillors weigh priorities and agree two spending plans for the council. These are the revenue budget and the capital programme. They both include funding for maintaining the highway.

Revenue funding

This usually comes from council tax and business rates. This is approximately £40 per household or business a year.

We use this funding on day-to-day reactive maintenance work to keep the highway safe including:

Highway Asset Inspections – Carrying out regular inspections of highway assets to identify defects (e.g. potholes) and other issues. ‘Highway Assets’ is the term we use for all parts of the highway that we look after so this includes everything from roads and pavements to bollards and traffic lights.
Drainage Maintenance – Routine cleaning and maintenance of the highway drainage system.
Control of Vegetation – Routine verge cutting, hedge cutting and weed control.
Road Markings – Maintenance of all centre lines, junction markings and other lines.
Winter Service – Gritting, provision of grit bins, snow clearance, weather prediction etc.
Structures – Routine and general maintenance of bridges, culverts, subways and retaining walls to prevent deterioration and keep them safe.
Street Lighting and Intelligent Transport Systems – Inspecting, managing and maintaining systems including streetlights, illuminated bollards.
Traffic Signals - Inspecting, managing and maintaining systems including traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.
Reactive and Emergency Response – 24/7 service to repair defects causing a danger to users e.g. potholes. Also responding to other emergencies that compromise the safety or operation of the highway network e.g. an oil spill, flooding, storm events, etc.
Network Management - Minimising disruption to the highway network by coordinating roadworks, road closures, traffic orders, lane rental etc. Also through licencing items such as skips, dropped kerbs, furniture etc. and dealing with any unlawful obstructions.
Third Party Claims – Handling red and green claims. Red Claims are claims against the Council from third parties. E.g. someone claiming for compensation if they have hit a pothole and damaged their car. Green Claims are claims we make against others for damage to the highway network e.g. if a lorry driver reversed into a streetlight.

Capital funding

The Department for Transport (DfT) gives capital grants to local highway authorities for highway maintenance. This funding is allocated using a needs-based formula, considering the highway assets each authority manages. In the past the Council has borrowed additional capital funding.

Capital funding is used to improve the highway and reduce the cost of maintenance in the long term. It can usually only be used for certain types of preventative maintenance work that extend the life of roads. This includes:

Protection e.g. Sealing the surface of the highway and protecting it from damage caused by water and UV light.
Intervention maintenance e.g. Resurfacing a road if the surface of the road has deteriorated beyond preventative treatments but the base below is still in good condition.
Structural maintenance if there are underlying issues e.g. Re-laying the ‘foundations’ of a road.
Improvement works to change a specific characteristic to improve safety or to prevent damage e.g. Adding skid resistant surfacing or improving drainage to prevent damage to the road because of flooding.

Note, the Government sometimes specifies that their capital grants can be used on reactive work such as repairing potholes or on preventative work to prevent potholes forming in the first place.

Recent and planned spending

The table below shows a breakdown of:

capital funding from the Department for Transport (DfT)
capital and revenue funding from East Sussex County Council (ESCC)

It shows actual spending for the last 5 years, and forecast spending for the next year.

Capital and revenue funding from DfT and ESCC
Year	DfT capital funding	ESCC capital borrowing	Total capital funding and borrowing	ESCC revenue spend
2020/21	£18,046,000	£7,792,000	£25,838,000	£13,397,000
2021/22	£13,275,000	£8,500,000	£21,775,000	£16,263,000
2022/23	£13,525,000	£16,010,000	£29,535,000	£13,655,000
2023/24	£17,309,000	£16,568,000	£33,877,000	£15,646,000
2024/25	£14,949,000	£8,047,000	£28,540,000*	£13,208,000
2025/26 (forecast)	£21,000,000	£0	£16,667,000*	£13,397,000

*Note: Of the £21 million allocated by the DfT for 2025-26, £4.333 million was spent in advance at the end of 2024-25 on preparatory patching ahead of surface dressing in 2025-26. This is in addition to the £14,949 allocated by the DfT in 2024-25.

**The cost of reactive maintenance in the years to 2022/23 was under a fixed price arrangement with our contractor agreed in 2016. This was renegotiated in 2023/24.

You can find out more about the capital funding allocated by the Department for Transport (DfT) to East Sussex and other authorities on their website - Highways maintenance funding allocations - GOV.UK

The table below shows highways maintenance spending on preventative and reactive maintenance:

Highway maintenance spending
Year	Estimate of % spend on preventative maintenance	Estimate of % spend on reactive maintenance
2020/21	96.2%	3.8%
2021/22	96.2%	3.8%
2022/23	96.6%	3.4%
2023/24	94.0%	6.0%
2024/25	92.6%	7.4%
2025/26 (projected)	89.5%	10.5%

More information on pothole repairs

Typically, we repair 30,000 ‘safety defects’ at a fixed cost of £3.17m per year.

‘Safety defects’ are defined as any kind of damage that causes a hazard to highway users. They include everything from potholes to overgrown vegetation to damaged road signs. Not all potholes are considered to be a hazard. You can find out more about the criteria we use in our Highway Inspection Manual.

Carriageway potholes typically make up approximately 70% of safety defects and therefore as an approximation, a 0.5m x0.5m pothole costs on average around £105 to repair. The table below shows the number of pothole safety defects repaired in recent years. Other potholes that do not meet this criteria will have been addressed through patching programmes and other planned maintenance work.

Estimate of number of potholes (safety defects) filled
Year
2020/21	19,261
2021/22	18,250
2022/23	22,037
2023/24	27,134
2024/25	19,381

The winter of 2023/24 weather was one of the wettest on record which was a major factor in higher pothole numbers in that year. In addition, the carriageway patching programme in both 2023 and 2024 was extensive partly thanks to additional funds from DfT grants and borrowing from the Council to target more preventative repairs. This is considered to have had played an important part in reducing the volume of potholes in 2024/25.

More information on preventative maintenance

Length of network we have maintained through planned, preventative maintenance (resurfacing, concrete roads, patching and surface dressing).

2023-24 = 88.5km (55 miles)
2024-25 = 17.2km (10.7 miles) (Note there was no surface dressing in this year)
2025-26 - estimated = 77.2km (48 miles)

Number of key structures (bridges and retaining walls) we have maintained / planned to maintain

2023/24 = 8
2024/25 = 13
2025/26 = 14 (based on following year trends)

Funding is also spent on a variety of other projects.

Prevention or cure?

The Council has a statutory duty under the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highway and keep it safe. We need to make sure we always have enough funding available to repair hazardous defects on the highway e.g. filling a deep pothole or fixing a broken handrail.

However, simply waiting for hazardous defects to form and then repairing them is not cost effective in the long term. It makes better use of resources to invest in preventing roads getting into a poor condition in the first place.

It’s a bit like looking after a bicycle: you could just do nothing and then fix things when they break. But things would be less likely to break and it would be cheaper (and safer) in the long run if you gave your bike a clean, greased the chain, and topped up the tyre pressure from time to time.

This is known as an asset management approach. You can find out more about it in our Asset Management Policy and Strategy: Highway policies | East Sussex County Council

This means that there are two types of maintenance we can spend money on:

Planned, preventative maintenance involves work designed to extend the lifespan of assets and prevent deterioration, as well as routine maintenance such as verge cutting.
Reactive maintenance takes place when there are immediate safety concerns. For example, repairing large potholes or other defects that pose a hazard to road users. These activities keep the highway safe and serviceable.

The planned maintenance programme can be found on the East Sussex Highways website: Planned maintenance programme.

How we decide how much to spend on different types of maintenance.

The balance between spending on preventative and reactive maintenance is guided by our asset management strategy which focuses on long term planning and cost-effectiveness. Factors influencing this balance include:

The condition of the assets
Performance targets
Budget constraints.

In practice, this means that we aim to spend as much of our budget as possible on preventative, long term maintenance. However, we still make sure we have enough funding set aside to keep the highway safe and useable in the short term. You can find out more about this in the ‘Our Asset Management Approach’ section below.

How we are trying to increase the proportion spent on preventative maintenance.

We have sought to increase our investment in preventative highway maintenance by following a risk-based approach to asset management. This ensures that we focus our efforts where they are most needed. Instead of treating all roads the same, we assess which areas are more likely to develop problems and which would cause the most disruption or danger if they did.

This strategy allows us to spot issues early (before they become serious) and we can then fix them in a planned way. This is often much cheaper than urgent, reactive repairs.

Our risk-based approach to reactive maintenance focuses on keeping the highway network safe in the most cost-effective manner. For example, we inspect high risk roads more frequently than low risk roads. We also repair hazardous potholes, but we do not repair small potholes that are not dangerous.

The combination of these two approaches mean that we reduce costly emergency repairs, allowing us to spend more of the budget on preventative work, jet patching, surface dressing or sealing cracks, which helps roads last longer and costs less in the long run.

Our highways contract has been developed to help us deliver efficient and effective services in modern innovative ways utilising technology and processes to drive performance and deliver efficiencies.

The contract promotes this approach by focussing on outcomes and using good contract management and asset management to deliver those outcomes. The Contractor proactively manages the works and services delivering effective solutions, managing the day-to-day activity on our network, interacting with our communities and demonstrating value for money.

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.

Our asset management approach to maintenance

Current approach to asset management and highway maintenance

East Sussex County Council’s approach to highway asset management is set out in our Highway Asset Management Strategy. It emphasises a risk based, data driven methodology to maintain and enhance the county’s road infrastructure where possible. This strategy aims to optimise the use of available resources, ensuring safety, sustainability and value for money.

Key components:

Risk-based maintenance – prioritising maintenance activities based on the likelihood of and impact of asset failures, focusing resources on areas where they are most needed to prevent deterioration and ensure safety.
Resilient network identification – this is a network of critical routes, essential for economic activity and access to key services. This network receives prioritised maintenance to ensure functionality during adverse conditions.
Lifecycle planning – by considering the entire lifespan of highway assets, the strategy supports timely interventions that extend asset life and reduce long term costs.
Performance monitoring – regular assessments and surveys, such as SCANNER inform the condition of the network, guiding maintenance decisions and investment planning.
Stakeholder engagement – our strategy involves collaboration with stakeholders, including local communities and transport partners, to ensure we align maintenance activities with user needs and expectations.

What we are doing to follow best practice and deliver innovation efficiency

We keep up to date with best practice guidance and regularly review our policies and approach to maintenance.

We continually seek to improve through innovation and technology including:

Having an Innovation Lead who coordinates innovations and assesses new technologies.
Holding quarterly Continuous Improvement and Innovation groups that explore various workstreams.
Sharing information and learning around systems, processes and products across the business and with other local authorities.
Belonging to the South East Local Councils Roads Innovations Group.
Participating in a Materials Forum to explore new materials.

For example, recently we have started using drones for structural inspections of bridges.

What we are doing to reduce disruption from streetworks

We coordinate streetworks to ensure that all works are planned and coordinated effectively and disruption is minimised.

Permit scheme

East Sussex Highways run a roadworks permit scheme to coordinate all roadworks carried out by the council and others. This helps us to:

reduce disruption to communities and road users,
check that work has been completed to a good standard, and
encourage better practices.

We can issue fines for breaking permit rules or for working without a permit.

Coordinating works

All organisations who carry out roadworks plan ahead up to four years in advance so that work on the highway can be coordinated. Regular meetings with regional highway and utility committees take place to help ensure smooth collaboration.

We can also stop newly repaired roads from being dug up soon after maintenance work is done. This is a Section 58 restriction under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991.

It stops utility companies from digging up the road:

for 3 years after full reconstruction, or
for 2 years after resurfacing.

The only exception is if there is an emergency or if new services need to be installed.

Ensuring lasting repairs by utility companies

Utility companies that dig up roads to repair equipment must restore the road to a high standard. The 'New Roads and Street Works Act' (NRSWA) allows them to make temporary repairs, but they must make these permanent within 6 months.

We meet regularly to discuss repair materials and methods. They are encouraged to minimise long-term road damage by using innovative methods.

This includes:

repositioning equipment,
using trenchless technology that avoids digging, and
using the latest technology that offers value for money.

East Sussex Highways use 'New Roads and Street Works Act' (NRSWA) qualified inspectors. They check that repairs meet required standards.

We inspect their works within 6 months of the work being completed. If the quality is not good enough, the company must redo the work and a higher number of inspections will be carried out on their work in future. This helps to improve performance and protect the road.

Lane rental scheme

To further support our efforts to minimise congestion on the network, East Sussex was among the first local authorities to introduce a lane rental scheme in April 2025.

The scheme allows local authorities to charge for the time that street and road works occupy the highway on the very busiest streets at the busiest times. In East Sussex this is 5.9% of the highway network. Charges apply to works promoted by both utility companies and local highway authorities on the local road network. This encourages people carrying out roadworks to work as efficiently as possible.

Daily charges are:

£1,500 for a lane closure
£2,500 for a road closure

Once the costs of running the lane rental scheme are covered, the surplus money will be available for highway improvements, innovation and measures to further improve disruption and congestion-caused by works across the county.

Climate change, resilience and adaptation

Decarbonising maintenance

We are aiming to deliver an average 13% carbon reduction year on year from 2025 to 2030. We work closely with out highway maintenance contractor who have a plan called 'Bridging the gap', which contains targeted actions to reduce carbon.

Understanding the risks the network faces from the changing climate

Changing weather patterns present growing risks to roads and highway infrastructure. Key challenges include:

Flooding – Heavy rain overwhelms drains, damages road surfaces, and weakens structures.
Heat – High temperatures soften road surfaces, causing deformation and material failure.
Freeze-thaw cycles – Repeated freezing leads to cracks and potholes.
Storms and high winds – Cause fallen trees, damage to signs and structures, and blockages.
Coastal erosion and sea level rise – Threaten roads near the coast.

These risks mean councils must build greater resilience into the network—using better materials, improving drainage and targeting investment where roads are most vulnerable.

Our data led approach to asset management gives opportunities for us to identify areas of greatest risk from changes in climate. In recent years we have mapped our flooding hotspots and we are currently exploring areas at risk of erosion.

Additional information

You can find more information on our policies and services at the links below:

Highway policies | East Sussex County Council

About the Highway service | East Sussex Highways

Monitoring road condition

How we monitor the condition of roads

The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) require all local authorities to gather data on the condition of local roads. We collect condition data on all A, B and C roads annually using a SCANNER (Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads) survey. SCANNER surveys use special vehicles with sensors to check road condition. They help us understand how good or bad a road surface is, so we can plan repairs and improvements. Roads are then placed into one of three categories:

Green “good condition”: where no immediate work is needed, they are safe and smooth to drive on.
Amber “needs attention soon”: these roads are showing early signs of wear and tear. They are most in need of preventative maintenance.
Red “poor condition”: these roads are likely to have cracks, potholes, edge wear or uneven surface. They will usually require major maintenance intervention.

The SCANNER surveys provide up-to-date information on road conditions. This regular assessment allows for timely interventions and supports the council's asset management strategy.

For roads not covered by SCANNER, such as unclassified roads, the council employs other methods like Course Visual Inspections (CVI) to monitor their condition. This approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of the entire road network's health. The information is shared with the Department for Transport which helps them to understand the state of the national road network.

From 2026/27 a new methodology will be used based on the BSI PAS2161 standard. Local Highway Authorities will be required to use a supplier that has been accredited against PAS2161. This new standard will categorise roads into five categories instead of three to help the Council and the Government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England. This includes:

Category 1: No deterioration: Not considered for maintenance.
Category 2: Minor (and/or aesthetic) deterioration: Light maintenance, such as minor patching, may be required.
Category 3: Moderate deterioration: Localised intervention or mid-life preventative maintenance (e.g., surface dressing, patching) is needed.
Category 4: Moderate to severe deterioration: Rehabilitative maintenance, such as full carriageway resurfacing, may be required.
Category 5: Severe deterioration: Structural maintenance, including full carriageway resurfacing or reconstruction, is necessary.

Condition data

Percentage of A roads in each category

Year	Red	Amber	Green
2020	4.0	32.9	63.1
2021	4.9	33.2	61.9
2022	4.8	32.0	63.3
2023	4.4	28.3	67.4
2024	5.1	30.4	64.4

Percentage of B and C roads in each condition category

Year	Red	Amber	Green
2020	4.4	27.8	67.7
2021	6.1	30.4	63.5
2022	6.1	31.0	62.9
2023	5.3	25.6	69.4
2024	6.1	27.7	66.2

Percentage of U roads in red condition
Year	Red
2020	14
2021	19
2022	13
2023	17
2024	Not available*

*Please note: although a CVI survey of U roads took place in 2024, the results were not considered to be accurate or reflective of the actual road condition. This was due to the contractor lacking sufficient qualified inspectors to deliver the survey during the summer months as agreed. The delay pushed survey activity into the winter months (February 2025) when conditions are widely recognised as unsuitable for visual inspections.

In order to validate the score, a resampling exercise of a short section of the previously surveyed U-roads was carried out in June 2025. The results were broadly in line with historic condition trends and clearly demonstrated that the original result was not representative of the network. However, due to the small sample size, the findings cannot be used to calculate a new average. Therefore the DFT advised us to submit a nil return for 2024.

You can find out more about condition across the country on the Government website: Road condition statistics: data tables (RDC) - GOV.UK

Reasons for decline in condition

The overall condition of roads in East Sussex has been gradually declining.

In 2024 we carried out a modelling exercise to work out how much it would cost to maintain East Sussex’s carriageway network in its current condition. The modelling looked at the whole lifecycle of our carriageways using data on the condition, typical deterioration rates, costs of treatments and inflation. The exercise found that it would cost £23m per year to keep carriageways in the same condition overall. It is important to note that this figure applies only to carriageways. It does not include the investment required to maintain other critical highway infrastructure such as footways, drainage systems, bridges, signs, or lighting columns. However, we are planning further exercises to look at these too.

Over the last seven years, East Sussex Highways has faced a fluctuating level of investment in carriageway maintenance. The funding available to spend on carriageways has been significantly less than the amount needed to achieve this. This major funding shortfall, combined with inflation and rising costs, has meant we have not been able to invest as much in preventative maintenance as needed to prevent long term decline.

The first roads to show signs of decline are usually the local unclassified roads. These were often not constructed as robustly as more major roads and without maintenance they will generally deteriorate more quickly. However, with limited funds we must prioritise our A and B roads, which are key for business, transport and emergency services. It is not a choice we take lightly, but it is widely regarded as the most effective way to manage risk and keep the county moving with the resources we have.

However, we do continue to inspect all parts of the highway for hazards and repair them promptly to ensure the highway stays safe for users.

Emergencies and winter services

Winter service

You can find out how we maintain roads in winter, including gritting routes and grit bins, on the East Sussex Highways website:

Winter service plan - East Sussex Highways

Emergencies

You can find out more about how the Council plans for emergencies in our Emergency Planning section:

Emergency planning

To report an emergency on the highways, call East Sussex Highways on
0345 60 80 193.

For non-emergencies, you can report it online.

Report a problem

Contact us about roads and pavements

If you think there is an emergency issue on the highways, call East Sussex Highways on
0345 60 80 193.

For non-emergencies or other enquiries, you can report it online.