East Sussex has secured £2.9m for road repairs, but it is not new money and one Crowborough road is on this year's list. Checked November 2026.
East Sussex County Council has secured £2.9 million for road and pothole repairs by publishing a report on the state of its roads, but the councillor in charge says it is not new money, and the county’s planned maintenance programme for this year names only one road under Crowborough.
The £2.9 million is the first part of the incentive money in the Department for Transport’s road maintenance grant, which depended on the council publishing a Highway Maintenance Transparency Report (East Sussex County Council, 4 November 2026). The council also receives a £15.9 million baseline grant, and could receive another £2.9 million later this year if it meets other conditions, including spending its maintenance funding and publishing an updated policy for managing the network.
Together those three sums come to £21.7 million. That matches the figure in the report itself for Department for Transport maintenance capital in 2026/27, £21,739,000. The same line was £21,002,000 in 2025/26, so the rise is £737,000.
“This is not new money”
Cllr Peter Griffiths, the county council’s lead member for transport and environment, said: “I am pleased we have been able to meet the requirements set by the DfT to receive the maximum grant available to us, which will help us improve the standard of East Sussex roads, pavements, assets and structures.
“As well as qualifying us for the incentive element of the grant, the Highway Maintenance Transparency Report enables us to set out publicly an accurate picture of the condition of East Sussex roads, pavements, and structures, and the significant amount of work we are carrying to keep the network running.”
He added: “It’s important to note that this is not new money. The DfT has replaced our annual block grant and one-off pothole grant with a single payment which includes the incentive grant.
“It will, along with money from Council Tax contributions, help us fund the work needed to maintain the highway network in East Sussex, but we need to be realistic about the level of funding that would be needed to bring almost 2,000 miles of road up to a high standard.”
What is planned around Crowborough
The report gives county-wide figures and does not mention Crowborough, Uckfield or Wealden. The local detail is in East Sussex Highways’ planned maintenance programme for 2026/27, which we checked on 4 November. Its dates can change.
- Crowborough: St Johns Road (Marden) is the only road listed under the town. It has been patched and surface dressed, and both jobs are marked completed.
- Boarshead: surfacing on the A26 Eridge Road is marked completed.
- Forest Row: Grinstead Lane and Priory Road have been patched and surface dressed.
- Withyham: patching on the A264 East Grinstead Road is marked completed.
- Rotherfield: patching on Bicycle Arms Road is listed for January 2027.
- Hadlow Down: patching and surfacing on the A272 Main Road are listed for March 2027. Before that, investigation work with trial holes and core holes is due on week nights from 16 to 25 November, between Waghorns Lane and the A267, with temporary traffic lights.
- Uckfield: the entries are all road safety schemes, none of them resurfacing or patching.
Separately, the county scheduled a job for 2 November to raise the granite kerbs on the A26 Eridge Road in Crowborough to prevent flooding. Our Crowborough roadworks page tracks the closures that affect you this week, including Framfield Road in Buxted.
What the report says about the roads
The council sorts its roads by survey result: green needs no further work, amber may need maintenance soon, and red is in poor condition and should be considered for maintenance. The 2025 results were:
- A roads: 5% red, 30% amber, 64% green.
- B and C roads: 6% red, 28% amber, 66% green.
- Unclassified (U) roads, the class St Johns Road is in: no 2025 figure. The share in red was 13% in 2023 and 17% in 2024. The council says its survey contractor could not supply enough qualified inspectors in the agreed period, so surveys were done in February 2025, when winter conditions affected the quality of inspections, and the Department for Transport advised it to submit a nil return.
East Sussex Highways repaired 22,453 potholes in 2025/26, more than 60 a day on average. The figure covers only recorded safety defects repaired under the reactive programme. The council also completed 120 patching programmes but does not record how many potholes those fixed.
The planned work for this year shifts towards full resurfacing and away from preventative treatment. The council expects to resurface about 13km of road in 2026/27, against 2.4km in 2025/26, and to apply preventative treatments such as surface dressing to about 46km, against 69.5km. The two together, about 59km, are less than 2% of the county’s 3,120km (1,939 miles) of road. It also plans to renew about 1.8km of pavement, out of 2,482km.
Where the money goes
The council projects total spending on highways maintenance of £43.15 million in 2026/27. That is up from £39.96 million in 2025/26 but down from £45.93 million in 2024/25.
Government money for maintenance has gone up over that time, from £16.86 million to a projected £22.75 million, while funding from the council and third parties has fallen, from £29.07 million to a projected £20.40 million.
Within the total, spending on the road surface itself is projected at £20.24 million this year, against £25.83 million in 2024/25. Structures such as bridges rise to £9.33 million from £4.28 million. Drainage falls to £2.01 million from £4.42 million.
What it means for you
By the council’s own account this replaces earlier grants rather than adding to them, and neither the release nor the report says how much will be spent in Wealden. What you can use is the report’s detail on how repairs are decided.
- What counts as a pothole for repair: normally 40mm deep and 300mm wide in all directions on a road, and 20mm deep and 200mm wide on a pavement or cycleway. Inspectors can arrange repairs to smaller ones where other risks apply, such as location and how the road is used.
- How fast it should be fixed: within 2 hours, 5 days or 28 days, depending on the risk. Temporary repairs must be followed by a permanent one within 28 days.
- Who to tell: roads and pavements go to East Sussex Highways, not Wealden District Council. Use the online report form or FixMyStreet, or call 0345 60 80 193. You can follow your report online and are told when the case is closed.
- What is planned on your road: the planned works map is updated weekly, but it does not show reactive repairs.
The county council looks after the A26 through Crowborough. National Highways runs only the stretch of the A26 between the A27 and Newhaven.
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