A new schedule and fresh criteria have been agreed for carrying out highway maintenance inspections in Bridgend County Borough.

Designed to ensure that all local authorities across Wales use the same criteria and timetable for inspections and repairs, the move follows recommendations made by the UK Roads Liaison Group and a review carried out by the County Surveyors Society Wales.

As Bridgend County Borough Council already meets the majority of the new criteria, the biggest difference will be that main roads within the area will now be inspected on a monthly basis instead of every three months.

The highways estate in Bridgend County Borough features more than 799km of carriageway, 883km of footway, 419km of street lighting cabling, 4.2km of pedestrian barriers, and 15.6km of safety fencing.

It also features 24,853 road gullies, 20,000 streetlights, 103 culverts, 101 road bridges, 102 footbridges, 13 subways, 46 light controlled junctions, 283 bus shelters, 35 cattle grids and 155 retaining walls.

Standardising the criteria which councils use to inspect roads and footways across Wales makes sense as it means that in future, they will all be inspected and repaired according to same schedule and high standards.

As it stands, different councils may have different procedures in place, but in future, common issues such as potholes will be dealt with when they all hit the same depth and size.

It is also good to see that Bridgend County Borough Council already has high standards in place that meet the vast majority of the new criteria.Cllr John Spanswick, Cabinet Member for Communities