Norfolk has come first for the second year in a row in the National Highways and Transport survey on roads and transport.

The annual survey showed again that the highest satisfaction among 29 UK counties and authorities was to be found in Norfolk.

Some 3,300 people from across the county gave the highest above average scores in both satisfaction with traffic levels and congestion and condition of highways.

“To achieve first place amongst our peers once again is wonderful.” said councillor Martin Wilby, cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport on Norfolk County Council. 

“This achievement is testament to the hard work and dedication of all the highway and transport team, particularly as the professionalism of staff responding to enquiries was one of the areas we were ranked first in.”

“Despite the challenging situation brought by the pandemic,” added Mr Wilby, “we have continued to focus our efforts and spending on all things that people tell us are most important to them, which are safe roads that are in good condition.”

Mr Wilby said that he was “pleased that successful bids for government funding has seen us secure £25.5 million for this year, boosting our highways maintenance budget to £38.6 million for 2020-21.”

“One of the biggest schemes made possible by that extra money was the resurfacing of a section of the busy A1066 near Thetford, which was completed just last week.” he said.

This year there was 124 satisfaction questions, where 48 different authorities were the ‘biggest improver’ and 34 different authorities secured a ‘best performer’ for one or more indicators.

Less positive responses were given to new questions that had been added to the survey this year, seeking opinions on changing travel habits and congestion charging.

Responses showed that people “strongly disagreed” with the statement that they could travel less by car than they currently do and “strongly disagreed” that they could walk, cycle or use public transport more than they currently do.
 
Keeping the public informed about air quality was the lowest recorded ‘well informed’ score at 22% and this also had the lowest average score at 27%.

This year, 109 councils took part in the survey with the survey sent to 404,094 households across the country. Over 90,000 of them responded.

For highways maintenance specifically, Portsmouth secured the top spot, with 19 top performer places, with Southwark, coming second with 10. Portsmouth also had the best overall condition of the highways and highways maintenance satisfaction scores.