Abuse of road workers 'appalling'
The leader of West Sussex Council has spoken on the issue
Verbal and physical abuse of road workers has been branded appalling, by the leader of West Sussex County Council.
Paul Marshall spoke during a meeting of the full council on Friday (February 20), when the budget and council plan for 2026/27 were approved.
Mr Marshall said: “It’s appalling that our staff and contractors ae being abused and are being physically assaulted. To have people purposely drive their vehicle at an officer or a contractor and to create an impact is unacceptable.
“These people are working in conditions with pouring rain, flooding surfaces – and then you get cars that are purposely creating waves going through that.
“The majority of our residents recognise that we are just trying to make the roads safe. If you can’t make the road safe, we will close that road for good reason.
“In the event that certain individuals choose to ignore that and give verbal and physical threats, then we will always go to the police and we’ll assist whether there should be a prosecution there.”
A recent incident saw an officer attacked by a member of the public, when the A29 Shripney Road, near Bognor Regis, was closed to all but residents.
The revenue budget for 2026/27 – the day-to-day cost of running the council – includes £84.6m for maintaining roads and providing transport, while capital investments for the year include £56.5m, with a focus on the highways works programme.
Since the start of February, the county council’s highways team has cleared more than 2,000 drainage gullies and repaired more than 1,500 potholes.
As the rain fell outside County Hall, Mr Marshall pointed out that, no matter ‘how much money you chuck at it’, the capacity to carry out repairs could not match the ‘torrent of rainfall this county is experiencing’.
He added: “Many residents sometimes observe that there’s been a repair and it’s not a very good repair. What they don’t appreciate is that’s not a repair, it’s a safety intervention, pending a more permanent repair.
“In order to undertake a permanent repair, you need dry weather.”
You can report a pothole via the council’s website