Investment of £400million would be needed to return Gloucestershire’s deteriorating highways network to a “very good condition”. Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) bosses have warned a blackhole in its budget will continue to grow unless the Government urgently increases funding, according to Punchline.
This means the condition of structures such as bridges, rural roads and footpaths will continue to decline, potentially handicapping the council’s “most valuable asset” which is crucial for delivering services and “vital” to the local economy
Department of Transport data shows commercial vehicles account for up to 1 billion of the 4.4 billion total traffic movements across the county annually. There are around 1,146 transport and logistics companies and 176 courier and delivery companies operating across Gloucestershire.
Around 40,585 of employed residents commute to outside the county while 38,000 workers commute into the county and it is also visited by tens of millions of tourists each year.
The council’s Government grant for highways repairs in 2026/27 is £36.5m- only around two-thirds of the £52m needed just to maintain the current condition of the roads, bridges, pavements, streetlights, cycle ways and footpaths. Every year the cost of maintaining roads rises due to inflation, with the council projected to spend £83m in total on highways maintenance, with the additional money coming from its own budgets and third parties.
GCC directly maintains 3,649 miles of roads, 3,381 miles of footways, 141 miles of cycleways, 1,326 bridges and highways structures, 63,500 streetlights, 186 traffic light junctions, 225 crossings and 100,000 street furniture assets.
Almost a third of bridges are in critical condition with 61 structures shored up with interim measures and a third of streetlights having exceeded their anticipated service life. Smaller rural routes are suffering the most with the number of U roads categorised as in poor condition and needing maintenance having risen from 18.2% in 2023 to 23.7% in 2024 and to 25% in 2025.
The condition of larger strategic roads has been improved over the same period with the percentage of A roads in need of maintenance staying steady at 1% and B roads dropping from 4% to 3 %.
A total of 66,330 public complaints were made to the council in the 2025/26 financial year about highways related damage and issues, although not all reports were critical or safety related.
A highways maintenance transparency report 2026, used to show the Government its cash is being spent correctly, said:
“Gloucestershire covers an area of 2,653 km² (1,024 sq miles) and has an estimated asset value of around £9.5billion. While targeted investment has improved the condition of the A, B and C road network, most other asset groups continue to deteriorate. Historical underfunding has resulted in declining asset condition, with increasing reactive maintenance costs reducing the funding available for preventative interventions that would extend asset life and maintain serviceability.”
Meanwhile the council’s Transport Asset Management Plan, revised in April 2025, shows that the condition of its highway structures is deteriorating and “significantly underfunded”. Less than 10% of its maintenance budget is being allocated to this area, with priority instead given to repairing carriageways. It said this creates a “risk” that other highway assets will continue to deteriorate.
Figures to keep highways assets in their current condition and restore them to very good condition are:
Signs and barriers £2m and £3.4m
Carriageways- £3m and £10m
Footways and cycleways £8.2m and £253.5m
Bridges and structures £12.5m and £90m
Street lighting £0.8m and £39m
(Picture: Mapillary)
