The proportion of roads in England that should have been considered for maintenance is largely unchanged from the previous year, according to the latest Government figures looking at road conditions.

Statistics to March 2024 do, though, show increases have been seen in the last f years for both ‘A’ roads and ‘B’ and ‘C’ roads. Local authorities reported the proportion of:

• local ‘A’ road that should have been considered for maintenance to be 4%, unchanged since 2020 when it increased from 3%
• ‘B’ and ‘C’ road that should have been considered for maintenance to be 7%, unchanged from a revised 2023 figure of 7% and an increase from the 6% recorded in 2016 to 2022
• unclassified road that should have been considered for maintenance to be 17%, unchanged from the previous year. Data for unclassified roads is less robust than for classified roads and can show greater yearly fluctuations than other roads.

However, while the percentage of ‘red’ road has remained at 4% since 2020 for local ‘A’ roads, the percentage of ‘amber’ road has increased. Since 2020, the percentage of ‘amber’ road has increased from 24% to 27% and the percentage of ‘green’ road has decreased from 73% to 68%.

In 2024, 4.7% of the local ‘A’ road network and 2.5% of the minor road network (‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘U’ roads) received maintenance treatment. The proportion of the network receiving maintenance treatment has been falling over the last 10 years.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “While the percentage of A roads that are deemed to be in the worst ‘red’ condition doesn’t appear to have got any worse, it’s concerning to see that more roads that were in reasonable ‘green’ condition have now deteriorated to ‘amber’ status. 

“Unfortunately, this is also the trend with B and C roads with 3% more of these now being categorised as ‘amber’ which means approximately 1,500 miles of road around the country are now significantly worse than they were.

“Drivers surveyed for this year’s RAC Report on Motoring listed the poor state of local roads as their number-one motoring issue of concern. We badly need to end the decline in the condition of our local roads, so we hope the Government’s new approach to highways funding will enable councils to plan longer-term maintenance that finally addresses this. We’re very encouraged to hear the Government talking about the need for preventative maintenance, such as surface dressing, as we know this is key to improving road surface conditions for the future. This way potholes will be prevented from appearing in the first place.”

Read the full Gov.uk report here.

(Picture – Highways News)