Councillors faced off over the state of the roads in Brighton and Hove as the wet and cold winter weather added to the pothole problems blighting the streets.
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons criticised what he perceived as a lack of response to recent potholes when Brighton and Hove City Council met on Thursday (26 March).
Councillor Lyons said: “The condition of many roads within the city over the winter has been totally unacceptable.”
He cited Bramble Rise, in Westdene, and asked to be told when the potholes there would be patched, having been told that it was the 511th road on the priority list.
He said: “Residents and I find it beyond bewildering that there are some 510 roads in the city in a worse condition.”
He asked for councillors to be told how each road was prioritised, as well as the list of roads to be patched and repaired.
He added that he had asked for this information “on a number of occasions … but nothing is ever sent to councillors”.
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and city infrastructure, criticised what he said were problems caused by the previous Conservative government’s policies.
Councillor Muten said: “We have an enormous backlog … because of his party – underinvestment, underfunding and decay and decline for year upon year of the previous government.”
He compared the current Labour government’s spending on road maintenance to the sums allocated by the previous government.
For Brighton and Hove, he said, the amount had gone up from £3.7 million in 2024-25 to £5.3 million in the current financial year.
He said: “In England we have a pothole problem … the emblem of the Tory party.”
Councillor Muten also referred to the Facebook group Brighton and Hove Potholes where Councillor Lyons had posted a mocked up pothole montage.
He said: “Your use of AI imagery is not ok. It is generally shameful for a Tory to point at a Tory pothole and say, yes! What a battle! 510 on the list!”
He also thanked residents for reporting potholes, saying: “We had over 1,000 mended in January and 1,300 in February.”
Councillor Lyons repeated his demand for information about the way that roads in need of repair were assessed and prioritised.
Councillor Muten said: “We have presented the cabinet with the programme for this financial year.
“You do get a list of which ones have already been reported by residents and which ones are already scheduled, assessed and about to be fixed – and then you go out there and point at them.”
The debate highlighted a growing frustration over road maintenance in recent months as Brighton and Hove recovers from a winter in which the number of new potholes surged.