Sandwell Council’s Cabinet has agreed to invest an extra £1.5m to help maintain roads and footpaths, building on the authority’s top national Green rating for highway maintenance.

This boost means the council will invest more than £14m in total over the next year on keeping Sandwell’s roads, footpaths and street lights well maintained.

The additional £1.5million will specifically support maintaining local residential roads as well as footpaths in neighbourhoods and town centre shopping areas.

Sandwell has recently celebrated a Green rating under the government’s new national traffic light system for highway maintenance. This top assessment recognises strong performance, long-term investment and best practice in road upkeep.

Sandwell ranks fourth out of 154 Local Highway Authorities (LHAs) nationally, of which only 16 were rated Green; and is the top-rated LHA in the West Midlands.

National Pothole Day in January was marked by a visit from Simon Lightwood MP, the Roads Minister from the Department of Transport, who saw Sandwell’s innovative Multihog road repair machine in action.

The government’s ratings – the first of their kind – grade authorities as Red, Amber or Green, based on current road conditions and how effectively they are spending government funding to fix potholes and invest in long-term maintenance.

Sandwell’s Green rating is in line with the annual National Highways and Transport (NHT) survey, where Sandwell ranks among the top four councils nationally for highway condition and pothole prevention. In addition to the NHT survey, the council undertakes an annual resident’s survey, which shows resident satisfaction with road maintenance in Sandwell is more than double the national local government benchmark.

(Picture: Sandwell Council)