RSTA welcomes the focus on long-term road maintenance
The Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has welcomed the Government’s commitment to longer-term road maintenance by committing a total of £24 billion from 2026/7-2029/30 for local and national road maintenance. For a long time, the RSTA has called for more preventative maintenance to be adopted to stop more and more roads falling into poor condition […]
RSTA Chief Executive Mike Hansford joins MPs and roads experts as they meet face-to-face to help solve Britain’s pothole crisis
The Chief Executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA), Mike Hansford, has met face-to-face with MPs and other leading industry figures to debate and discuss how to solve the UK’s pothole crisis. More than 70 parliamentarians were yesterday given unrivalled insight in how best to tackle the UK’s pothole crisis at a first-of-its-kind event […]
Net zero is ‘in the grasp’ of local authorities
The new edition of the RSTA Carbon Emissions Document shows surface treatments remove significant amounts of carbon from maintenance process. Net zero is finally in grasp of local authorities, with the potential to remove carbon from the highway maintenance process higher than ever for those implementing surface treatments into their strategies. This is one of […]
Rethinking Road Maintenance: The 2025 ALARM survey, funding challenges and smarter solutions with the RSTA
We discuss how to drive better value from the highway maintenance funding on this week’s Highways Voices, with Mike Hansford, Chief Executive of the RSTA. “Our approach to road maintenance isn’t working,” he says, as he asks are we truly making the most of our funding, or are we stuck in an inefficient cycle of reactive […]
UK roads are in worse condition than official reports – RSTA and GAIST call for smarter maintenance
The Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) and highways technology company GAIST have released new data about the state of the roads in England showing that, although road conditions are significantly worse than official reports suggest, an AI led approach could save £2 Billion. Using the most comprehensive AI-driven road condition analysis, GAIST has a national […]
RSTA Chief responds to Swansea University’s self-healing roads findings
“More innovation that helps solve the pothole crisis in the UK should be welcomed, but the industry needs to be aware that there are already surface treatments available that can deliver the same outcomes.” These are the thoughts of Mike Hansford, Chief Executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA), who was responding to news […]
Special Feature – National Pothole Day: RSTA calls for local authorities to review highway maintenance strategies
On National Pothole Day 2025 the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) is making a ‘call for action’ for local highway authorities to review their maintenance strategies, and to improve their knowledge and understanding of surface treatments, including awareness of the appropriate times to use them based on road condition, to prevent future formation of potholes. […]
RSTA welcomes REA statement on 2024 rise in use of surface dressing but says there is more progress to be made
The Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has welcomed news by the Road Emulsion Association (REA) that indicates an increasing trend in the amount of surface dressing carried out by local highway authorities in 2024, following a twelve year decline, and lowest reported use of surface dressing in 2023. But the association also said there was […]
We are here to help-RSTA issues plea for local authorities wanting to include surface treatments as part of their highway maintenance strategy
The Chancellor’s budget announcement last week of an additional £500million for road maintenance was great news for local highway authorities and motorists. Now, the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) is offering help to local authorities that so far have not included surface treatments in their highway maintenance strategies. But, said the association, it is essential […]
Using additional highways funding for surface treatments will bring savings and a reduction in carbon, says RSTA
Whilst investing this additional £500million highways funding into addressing the immediate pothole issue, consideration should also be made into investing into preventative maintenance, otherwise further roads will fall into decline in the future, according to the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA). Additional funding for highway maintenance announced in the Autumn Budget, presents an opportunity for […]
