Southern Water has apologised after a council leader claimed it had “botched” repairs to a zebra crossing.

A section of road, including the junction at Vernon Terrace in Brighton, was torn up by the company while work was carried out to repair a leaking pipe.

Bella Sankey, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, said the utility company had been asked to “solve the problem”, while vice-chairman Jacob Taylor said the repair work looked “absolutely awful”.

Southern Water said: “We regret that our work to restore the road, including the zebra crossing at Vernon Terrace, did not meet the standard that our customers and shareholders rightly expect from us.”

A section of the road was closed for several days during the construction work.

Ms Sankey said it was “disappointing that Southern Water has done such a botched job after ripping up the road”.

Mr Taylor expressed the hope that Southern Water can “resolve the problem as quickly as possible”.

He added: “Southern Water had been working on the road to repair a leak and although technically they are only responsible for repainting the area they had to dig up, this clearly looks absolutely awful.

“We work incredibly hard to improve the appearance of the city and expect others who work on our streets to share our commitment.”

Southern Water said: “We will investigate how this happened and fix the problem as quickly as possible.”