Brighton and Hove City Council set out plans to spend £8.3 million on capital projects as part of its Local Transport Plan and these were approved by the council’s cabinet yesterday (Thursday 24 April).
The proposals include the full resurfacing of stretches of Ditchling Road, Dyke Road Avenue, Dyke Road, Hangleton Road, Station Road and Boundary Road, Viaduct Road and Waterloo Street.
Surface work is also planned for several other roads, including Union Road, Shirley Drive, London Road, Buckingham Place, New Church Road and King George VI Avenue, known locally as Snakey Hill.
Green councillor Pete West welcomed plans to resurface two sections of Ditchling Road from Viaduct Road to Springfield Road and Grantham Road to Preston Road.
But he was concerned about the poor condition of roads along busy bus routes.
Councillor West said: “While many residents will welcome the inclusion of their streets, I cannot understand the rationale whereby so many lightly used roads, including short cul-de-sacs, are to be improved while busy bus routes, that are in no better condition than farm tracks, for example Carden Hill, remain overlooked.
“Given the scale of public funding being committed here, does the cabinet member agree that detail of the rationale behind each proposed improvement should have been included … so that the public would be able to see how the prioritisation choices have been arrived at?”
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the cabinet member for transport and parking, said that the priorities were data-led and based on a planned and objective approach.
He said that Carden Hill would be included in the current 2025-26 financial year, which started at the beginning of this month.
He said that it was suitable for micro-asphalt resurfacing but was not included in a report to the cabinet because the engineer’s verdict was not known until after the report was published.
When presenting the council’s Local Transport Plan capital programme for 2025-26, Councillor Muten said that £2.1 million would go towards pothole repairs, with £4 million for improving roads.
Councillor Muten said: “A pothole is a symptom of a deeper problem. Each Tory pothole is symbolic of the insufficient and shortsighted lack of investment under the Tories in government.
“To put this into context, it costs approximately £200 per square metre to repair a pothole, compared with £10 per square metre to carry out maintenance and prevent them from happening in the first place.
“(It’s) a simple fact that makes the shortfall in funding by the previous government so shocking and so shortsighted.”
The Labour deputy leader of the council Jacob Taylor said: “Conservative councillors, who are not here, often pop up and point at potholes but their party created them.”
He said that residents in his Moulsecoomb and Bevendean ward were happy to see Hillside was the first road to be resurfaced in the new financial year.
The council also plans to spend £620,000 on improving pavements, £3 million on safety and accessibility, £1.2 million on measures to boost cycling and walking, £325,000 on making streets around school safer and £125,000 on bike hire and cycle parking.
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