How to report a problem with a road in the city.
To report a problem, complete the pavement and road repairs online form.
You need to provide:
Report damage to roads, pavements and potholes
What happens with a pothole depends on the site assessment of risk.
The options are:
We receive a large number of enquiries and therefore it is not possible to respond in all cases. However, we investigate every report we receive, and action will be taken in line with our Highway Reactive Safety Maintenance and Inspection Policy.
We do not report back through independent portals such as Fix My Street but we do investigate everything we receive through these channels.
You can apply for a licence to construct a vehicle cross-over or dropped kerb for access to your property.
For a claim to be successful, it must be proved that we, Brighton & Hove City Council, have been negligent or breached our statutory duty to maintain the highway.
To comply with our statutory duty, we undertake routine safety inspections of our highway network and carry out repairs to defects which meet the safety defect matrix criteria, within the appropriate response times.
Read our Highway Reactive Safety Maintenance and Inspection Policy for more information on standards and procedures.
We will defend claims if there is no evidence that we have been negligent or if we are able to rely upon the special statutory defence afforded to Highway Authorities under Section 58 of the Highways Act.
Before you submit a claim, be aware that:
We will provide a formal acknowledgement of your claim within 21 days following receipt. This acknowledgement will confirm your unique claim reference number.
We will aim to provide you with a decision on liability within 90 days thereafter; this is in accordance with the relevant pre-action protocols contained within the Ministry of Justice's Civil Procedure Rules.
During periods when we receive a high volume of claims, such as over the winter months, this timescale may be exceeded. We will always try to respond to you with our decision on liability as quickly as possible.
You are entitled to seek independent legal advice at any stage of your claim against us.
To submit a claim, complete a Public Liability Claims form and return it to the Claims Team.
These street works are carried out by organisations such as Southern Water and BT. Utility companies carry out about 9,000 works each year in the city to repair, maintain and install their equipment.
Brighton & Hove City Council inspects these works. If they're found to be of a poor standard or dangerous to vehicles or pedestrians, the company will be:
If you have any queries relating to these street works send an email to Permit.Admin@brighton-hove.gov.uk
We work to ensure that our roads, pavements and cycleways are safe for people to use.
We carry out inspections of every one of our roads, pavements, footpaths and cycle lanes. Busier roads and pavements are inspected once a month and less busy areas are inspected every 3 or 6 months.
Highway Inspectors look after:
All reports of potential hazards received from members of the public, elected members and other agencies are also investigated by the team and we'll take action as required. This is in addition to the inspection regime and we usually give an immediate response to minimise any problems.
Any potential hazards are called defects. Defects on the roads, pavements and cycle lanes can include raised kerbs or paving, potholes, broken railings, missing slabs and more.
All defects are investigated to see if they require repair following government guidance. The government accepts that the highway cannot be completely smooth or defect-free.
Not every defect will be repaired. The Highway Inspection team will make decisions based on each problem, including size, depth, location and degree of risk to users.
A paving slab that is sticking high up into the air will get repaired once we know about it, but broken paving slabs that may look unsightly but still present a relatively smooth surface will not get replaced.
Potholes occur when an area of the road's surface has broken up and fallen out.
We know that potholes and defects may arise between our inspections, particularly in late winter and early spring.
Potholes are the most obvious form of defect on our roads.
Sometimes the word ‘pothole’ is used as a general term to mean any type of carriageway defects.
The definition of an actual pothole is a hole of sufficient diameter or length and depth to cause a significant hazard. This means that it allows a vehicle tyre to drop into the hole and hit an opposing edge, causing damage to the tyre or wheel.
However, there are many other sorts of defects, like:
These are not potholes but our Highway Inspectors need to look at everything and decide whether and when a repair is warranted, depending on severity, location and other factors.
Timescales for repairs will vary according to the severity of the defect.
Orders will be raised for a contractor to repair within 2 hours, 24 hours, 7 days or 28 days, depending on the nature, location and type of problem.
We've been working with contractors to identify low-carbon materials and approaches to:
This includes single-layer surfacing materials with strengthening binders which reduce the amount of waste materials and new materials needed to resurface a road.
This saves both time and money and reduces ongoing maintenance costs.
We work with utility companies who need to dig up roads and pavements to ensure they minimise the amount of disruption.
This can include coordinating works to prevent newly resurfaced roads from being dug up in a short space of time.
During severe weather, such as very wet or very cold periods, the highway suffers from damage such as materials washing out or trees being uprooted.
In icy weather, a freeze-thaw action can cause the highway to expand and contract, with subsequent damage.
It is not always possible to get to every defect within the usual timescales, because of the amount of problems that arise all over Brighton & Hove's roads. In these circumstances, we'll prioritise the most urgent issues wherever possible.
Our highways asset management policy and strategy describe how we will maintain Brighton & Hove's highway network over the long term.
Our highway reactive safety maintenance and inspection policy describes how we keep the road network safe in line with National Best Practice.