The Department for Transport requires all local highways authorities to publish information about their highways maintenance activities to help local taxpayers see the difference that funding is making in their areas.
Our highway network includes over 1,000km of carriageway and thousands of highway assets like streetlights and drainage gullies.
Our highway assets include:
- 1,078km of carriageways
- 886km of footways & cycleways
- 39km of off-road cycleways/shared paths & permissive paths
- approx. 35,600 drainage gullies, chambers, soakaways, and outfall
- 403 bridges and culverts
- 121 signalised junctions and crossings
- numerous other highway assets we maintain are not listed here
| Item | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 (projected) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carriageways | £8,542,356 | £7,486,865 | £8,699,594 |
| Footways | £1,383,217 | £1,414,976 | £1,215,004 |
| Structures (for example bridges or tunnels) | £1,418,796 | £1,467,830 | £1,697,227 |
| Drainage | £1,346,240 | £1,699,586 | £1,884,273 |
| Street lighting | £1,581,768 | £1,799,569 | £1,550,180 |
| Traffic signals and ITS | £345,224 | £456,002 | £671,180 |
| Public Rights of Way (PROW) | £514,232 | £579,972 | £512,348 |
| Signs and lines | £496,170 | £490,852 | £445,135 |
| Total spend on highways maintenance | £15,628,002 | £15,395,651 | £16,674,941 |
Our expenditure on highway assets is based around revenue funding for the day-to-day reactive maintenance, and capital funding for ongoing preventative asset improvements.
| Funding source | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 (projected) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funding received through the Department for Transport / UK Government | £7,154,913 | £8,038,000 | £8,112,470 |
| Additional highways maintenance funding provided by the council or third parties | £8,325,672 | £8,865,169 | £8,492,180 |
| Total | £15,480,585 | £16,903,168 | £17,054,650 |
Our plans for highways maintenance for 2026-27
Carriageway resurfacing & major re-construction:
- 0.43km, 2,556 m2 of A Road
- 0.67km, 4,004 m2 of B Road
- 3.95km, 23,706 m2 of C Road
- 6.73km, 40,404 m2 of Unclassified Road
Carriageway micro asphalt surface treatment:
- 3.95 km, 23,678 m2 of Unclassified Road
Footways paving (stone and concrete paving slabs) and asphalt concrete:
- 3.86 km, 5790 m2
Other programmes:
- planned road marking improvement
- spray injection patching
- mastic asphalt patching
Highway drainage programme:
- highway drainage extensive investigation works
- 10 highway drainage improvement sites
Highway structures programme:
- inspection, assessment and remedial works
- Cleveland Bridge monitoring, signage and bearings
- Avon Valley bridge
- Grosvenor footbridge
Street lighting programme:
- 344 column replacements across 68 sites
- 40 Heritage LED Conversions (energy savings)
Traffic signals programme:
- 7 traffic signals site replacements
- 5 VMS replacements
How decisions are made on our maintenance plans
The highway condition survey carried out on all the highway network every year identifies roads and streets that are in a condition that require maintenance. We target a proportion of the network for preventative maintenance to extend the life of the carriageway and slow deterioration. Other roads that are in a condition where preventative actions are not suitable are selected for structural maintenance such as resurfacing or full reconstruction. Prioritisation uses the condition survey plus other factors such as road classification, traffic volumes/speed and proximity to business centres/schools. The prioritisation allows the highest scoring roads to be selected while staying within budget allocations.
Works are delivered through the Highway Term Maintenance Contractor, Volker Highways and the supply chain of local specialists. This successful long-term collaboration has efficiently delivered large work programmes and is able to react to extreme weather conditions that adversely impact the condition of the highway network.
A carriageway condition survey is carried out every year using high-definition imagery by Gaist Solutions Ltd. All of the network is surveyed every year allowing us to evaluate and prioritise our work programmes using the most up to date condition data. The method of collecting the condition data is certified to PAS2161.
Our carriageway condition has remained largely stable over the last three years with very slight improvement in red condition for unclassified roads and no significant change in red condition for A, B and C classified roads. This demonstrates that our preventative maintenance approach and financial investment is helping to keep roads from deteriorating from amber to red condition. Increased financial investment is required to start to move roads from amber to green condition for all classified and unclassified roads.
The following tables set out the high-level condition ratings of roads across our highway network. Highway infrastructure is vital to the local economy and the ability of residents, businesses and visitors to safely travel around the authority.
Up until 2020 we had been using SCANNER surveys to gather consistent condition data across parts of our carriageway network. We then moved to the Gaist high-definition video surveys and assessments from 2021. The new approach allowed a full annual survey across the whole carriageway network.
A number of parameters measured in these surveys are used to produce a road condition indicator which is categorised into 3 condition categories:
- green: no further investigation or treatment required
- amber: maintenance may be required soon
- red: should be considered for maintenance
| Year | Percentage of A roads in red category | Percentage of A roads in amber category | Percentage of A roads in green category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4.92% | 55.78% | 38.96% |
| 2024 | 4.58% | 59.48% | 35.94% |
| 2025 | 4.78% | 60.75% | 34.47% |
| Year | Percentage of B and C roads in red category | Percentage of B and C roads in amber category | Percentage of B and C roads in green category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 17.49% | 60.29% | 22.22% |
| 2024 | 17.14% | 59.63% | 23.23% |
| 2025 | 17.43% | 58.74% | 23.82% |
| Year | Percentage of U roads in the red condition category |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 24.33% |
| 2024 | 24.65% |
| 2025 | 23.37% |
The published official statistics for road condition include more detail about the methodology, timing and coverage of this data.