Local highways maintenance transparency report

Gloucestershire County Council manages and maintains adopted highway assets falling within its 5868km road network. This comprises carriageways, footways, verges and other highways features and structures such as road signs and drainage. In addition, the council maintains 5645km of Public Rights of Way and 426km of Cycleways.

The Council does not maintain the 228km of trunk roads or motorways within the County, which are the responsibility of National Highways. 

Lengths of highway, footways and cycleways (km)
A Road	B and C roads	U roads	Total Roads	Footways	Other Public rights of way	Cycleways
594.9km	1984.3km	3283.2km	5868.4km	3729km	5645km	426km

Details of our Highways assets are contained within our Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP) which was updated in April 2025. Specifically, this is summarised, including condition statement, in Appendix 3 of the TAMP.

Gloucestershire County Council manages and maintains adopted highway assets falling within its 5868km road network. This comprises carriageways, footways, verges and other highways features and structures such as road signs and drainage. In addition, the council maintains 5645km of Public Rights of Way and 426km of Cycleways.

The Council does not maintain the 228km of trunk roads or motorways within the County, which are the responsibility of National Highways. 

Lengths of highway, footways and cycleways (km)
A Road	B and C roads	U roads	Total Roads	Footways	Other Public rights of way	Cycleways
594.9km	1984.3km	3283.2km	5868.4km	3729km	5645km	426km

Details of our Highways assets are contained within our Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP) which was updated in April 2025. Specifically, this is summarised, including condition statement, in Appendix 3 of the TAMP.

The following table highlights Highway maintenance spending since 2020/21:

Highway maintenance spending
Year	Capital allocated by DfT (£,000s)	Capital spend (£,000s)	Revenue spend (£,000s)	Estimate of % spent on preventative maintenance	Estimate of % spent on reactive maintenance
2025/26 (target)	£ 35,310	£ 46,341	£ 30,812	60%	40%
2024/25	£ 25,075	£ 45,684	£ 33,233	58%	42%
2023/24	£ 29,033	£ 42,864	£ 30,030	59%	41%
2022/23	£ 22,266	£ 39,395	£ 29,127	57%	43%
2021/22	£ 22,266	£ 30,039	£ 20,279	60%	40%
2020/21	£ 30,006	£ 42,875	£ 20,576	68%	32%

The following table highlights Highway maintenance spending since 2020/21:

Highway maintenance spending
Year	Capital allocated by DfT (£,000s)	Capital spend (£,000s)	Revenue spend (£,000s)	Estimate of % spent on preventative maintenance	Estimate of % spent on reactive maintenance
2025/26 (target)	£ 35,310	£ 46,341	£ 30,812	60%	40%
2024/25	£ 25,075	£ 45,684	£ 33,233	58%	42%
2023/24	£ 29,033	£ 42,864	£ 30,030	59%	41%
2022/23	£ 22,266	£ 39,395	£ 29,127	57%	43%
2021/22	£ 22,266	£ 30,039	£ 20,279	60%	40%
2020/21	£ 30,006	£ 42,875	£ 20,576	68%	32%

The figures provided are taken from the total Highways Revenue budget for 2025/26 and the spend within the ‘Structural Maintenance’ element of our Capital programme. In both cases, associated staff costs are included.

Highway preventative maintenance is intervention activity to renew or extend the lifecycle of the asset. This typically includes (for example):

Structural highway resurfacing, surface dressing and patching programmes
Minor capital works
Bridges and Structures
Landslips
Traffic Signal refurbishment

In 2024/25, 121 Miles of road were resurfaced or surface dressed in Gloucestershire, with the total over the last 5 years being 576 miles. There are 101 miles of road currently programmed to be resurfaced or surfaced dressed in 2025/26.

Highway reactive maintenance spend typically includes:

Reactive and emergency repairs - including pothole filling and other safety defects.
Cyclical maintenance - such as road drainage gully cleansing
Vegetation clearance and grass cutting
Winter maintenance such as gritting
Signs, lines, barriers, tree maintenance (including Ash dieback) and weed control.

Just over £7M (23%) of the revenue budget is spent on ‘routine maintenance’ which includes pothole repairs, with a further £6.4M (20%) allocated to Winter maintenance and Drainage (including gully cleansing).

Preventative activity such as ‘Find & Fix’ has been utilised to identify and repair highway defects prior to them developing ping into Safety defects/potholes. The number of repairs by Find & Fix over the last 2 years is:

Year No. of defects treated
2023/24 27,921 (part year)
2024/25 31,358 (full year)
2025/26 5,266 (to 12 June 2025)

Estimate of number of potholes filled
2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
31,314	38,575	34,978	48,148	47,981

Potholes are only one group of defects that are picked up as part of our Safety Inspections in line with our policy, below provides the overall number of recorded safety defects per year and the percentage which were potholes.

Number of Safety Defects
2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
38517	46950	42334	57195	62131
81% potholes	82% potholes	83% potholes	84% potholes	77% potholes

The figures provided are taken from the total Highways Revenue budget for 2025/26 and the spend within the ‘Structural Maintenance’ element of our Capital programme. In both cases, associated staff costs are included.

Highway preventative maintenance is intervention activity to renew or extend the lifecycle of the asset. This typically includes (for example):

Structural highway resurfacing, surface dressing and patching programmes
Minor capital works
Bridges and Structures
Landslips
Traffic Signal refurbishment

In 2024/25, 121 Miles of road were resurfaced or surface dressed in Gloucestershire, with the total over the last 5 years being 576 miles. There are 101 miles of road currently programmed to be resurfaced or surfaced dressed in 2025/26.

Highway reactive maintenance spend typically includes:

Reactive and emergency repairs - including pothole filling and other safety defects.
Cyclical maintenance - such as road drainage gully cleansing
Vegetation clearance and grass cutting
Winter maintenance such as gritting
Signs, lines, barriers, tree maintenance (including Ash dieback) and weed control.

Just over £7M (23%) of the revenue budget is spent on ‘routine maintenance’ which includes pothole repairs, with a further £6.4M (20%) allocated to Winter maintenance and Drainage (including gully cleansing).

Preventative activity such as ‘Find & Fix’ has been utilised to identify and repair highway defects prior to them developing ping into Safety defects/potholes. The number of repairs by Find & Fix over the last 2 years is:

Year No. of defects treated
2023/24 27,921 (part year)
2024/25 31,358 (full year)
2025/26 5,266 (to 12 June 2025)

Estimate of number of potholes filled
2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
31,314	38,575	34,978	48,148	47,981

Potholes are only one group of defects that are picked up as part of our Safety Inspections in line with our policy, below provides the overall number of recorded safety defects per year and the percentage which were potholes.

Number of Safety Defects
2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
38517	46950	42334	57195	62131
81% potholes	82% potholes	83% potholes	84% potholes	77% potholes

Road condition assessments for England’s local classified road network are conducted using Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER), a laser-based technology. These surveys measure several key parameters to determine a road condition indicator, which categorises roads into three distinct condition levels:

Green – No further investigation or treatment needed.
Amber – Maintenance may be required soon.
Red – Considered for maintenance.

Year	Percentage of A roads in each condition category
Year	Red	Amber	Green
2020	2%	17%	81%
2021	2%	15%	83%
2022	2%	15%	83%
2023	1%	13%	86%
2024	1%	13%	86%

50% of the A roads are surveyed in both directions, annually.

Year	Percentage of B and C roads in each condition category
Year	Red	Amber	Green
2020	3%	26%	71%
2021	4%	26%	70%
2022	5%	27%	68%
2023	4%	25%	71%
2024	4%	25%	71%

50% of the B & C roads are surveyed in both directions, annually.

Year	Percentage of U Roads in the Red category
2020	12 %
2021	12 %
2022	14.5%
2023	18.2%
2024	23.7%

33% of our U roads are surveyed in a single direction, annually.

The “red” values indicated in the above U road table are generated using advice from system suppliers, they were not created using a nationally recognised or comparable data standard. We changed to a new system/methodology in 2022 (see below) so previous annual figures are not directly comparable.

Since 2011 there has been no national requirement for English highway authorities to survey and report on the condition of their Unclassified Road networks.

Post 2011, we continued to survey to the old data standard for a few years however this activity was expensive and provided limited benefit for maintenance purposes. In 2015, we started to use a smaller version of the SCANNER vehicle to carry out condition surveys on these roads. This provided similar data output to what we used on our classified roads however the varied nature of our unclassified roads meant we were only ever able to survey a sample of the network.

Since 2022, we have been using the Vaisala Road-AI system to identify and monitor the condition of our Unclassified roads. A complete network survey was completed in 3 years, and our aim is to survey 1/3 of this network (800km) on an annual basis. The collected video imagery is assessed through artificial intelligence, which categorises the highway into one of 5 condition bands (5 = good, 1 = poor). This process is similar in concept to the categorisation system that will be used in the forthcoming PAS 2161 standard.

Road condition assessments for England’s local classified road network are conducted using Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER), a laser-based technology. These surveys measure several key parameters to determine a road condition indicator, which categorises roads into three distinct condition levels:

Green – No further investigation or treatment needed.
Amber – Maintenance may be required soon.
Red – Considered for maintenance.

Year	Percentage of A roads in each condition category
Year	Red	Amber	Green
2020	2%	17%	81%
2021	2%	15%	83%
2022	2%	15%	83%
2023	1%	13%	86%
2024	1%	13%	86%

50% of the A roads are surveyed in both directions, annually.

Year	Percentage of B and C roads in each condition category
Year	Red	Amber	Green
2020	3%	26%	71%
2021	4%	26%	70%
2022	5%	27%	68%
2023	4%	25%	71%
2024	4%	25%	71%

50% of the B & C roads are surveyed in both directions, annually.

Year	Percentage of U Roads in the Red category
2020	12 %
2021	12 %
2022	14.5%
2023	18.2%
2024	23.7%

33% of our U roads are surveyed in a single direction, annually.

The “red” values indicated in the above U road table are generated using advice from system suppliers, they were not created using a nationally recognised or comparable data standard. We changed to a new system/methodology in 2022 (see below) so previous annual figures are not directly comparable.

Since 2011 there has been no national requirement for English highway authorities to survey and report on the condition of their Unclassified Road networks.

Post 2011, we continued to survey to the old data standard for a few years however this activity was expensive and provided limited benefit for maintenance purposes. In 2015, we started to use a smaller version of the SCANNER vehicle to carry out condition surveys on these roads. This provided similar data output to what we used on our classified roads however the varied nature of our unclassified roads meant we were only ever able to survey a sample of the network.

Since 2022, we have been using the Vaisala Road-AI system to identify and monitor the condition of our Unclassified roads. A complete network survey was completed in 3 years, and our aim is to survey 1/3 of this network (800km) on an annual basis. The collected video imagery is assessed through artificial intelligence, which categorises the highway into one of 5 condition bands (5 = good, 1 = poor). This process is similar in concept to the categorisation system that will be used in the forthcoming PAS 2161 standard.

From 2026/27 a new methodology will be used for classified roads based upon the BSI PAS2161 standard. Local Highway Authorities will be required to use a supplier that has been accredited against PAS2161. This new standard will categorise roads into five categories instead of three to help government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England. Further details are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-condition-statistics-data-tables-rdc#condition-of-local-authority-managed-roads-rdc01

In addition to annual condition assessments, regular safety inspections are undertaken to ensure the safety of network users. Safety Inspections are designed to identify all defects likely to cause danger, or serious inconvenience to users of the network or the wider community. The risk of danger is assessed on site and the defect identified with an appropriate priority response. Such defects include those that require urgent attention as well as those where the locations are such that longer periods of response are appropriate. Further details can be found in our Safety Inspection Manual.

Condition surveys may not align with public perception of road conditions. For example in the 2024 NHT Public Satisfaction Survey, public satisfaction with the condition of highways in Gloucestershire saw a slight decline, dropping by 2 percentage points compared to the 2023 survey. Nationally, this decline was more pronounced, with a 7 percentage point decrease in satisfaction compared to 2023.

From 2026/27 a new methodology will be used for classified roads based upon the BSI PAS2161 standard. Local Highway Authorities will be required to use a supplier that has been accredited against PAS2161. This new standard will categorise roads into five categories instead of three to help government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England. Further details are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-condition-statistics-data-tables-rdc#condition-of-local-authority-managed-roads-rdc01

In addition to annual condition assessments, regular safety inspections are undertaken to ensure the safety of network users. Safety Inspections are designed to identify all defects likely to cause danger, or serious inconvenience to users of the network or the wider community. The risk of danger is assessed on site and the defect identified with an appropriate priority response. Such defects include those that require urgent attention as well as those where the locations are such that longer periods of response are appropriate. Further details can be found in our Safety Inspection Manual.

Condition surveys may not align with public perception of road conditions. For example in the 2024 NHT Public Satisfaction Survey, public satisfaction with the condition of highways in Gloucestershire saw a slight decline, dropping by 2 percentage points compared to the 2023 survey. Nationally, this decline was more pronounced, with a 7 percentage point decrease in satisfaction compared to 2023.

Overall strategy

Our approach to Asset Management is published on our website. The Highways Asset Management Policy lays out the principles with which we manage the local road network. It shows how effective asset management will help achieve the council’s Local Transport Plan objectives and support the delivery of the County’s strategic priorities, such as tackling climate change, sustainable growth and improving our roads.

The Highways Asset Management Strategy expands on the principles of the Highways Asset Management Policy. It sets out how we use asset management to meet our long-term corporate objectives, including statutory obligations, stakeholder needs and the overall performance of our assets. It also provides a look forward to how we will grow and mature our capacity and capability further to achieve greater efficiency and value for money.

Our approach to individual asset groups is detailed within the TAMP, with each asset group having its own Lifecycle Plan. The plan includes our challenges in the future and an estimation of the standstill and backlog costs associated with each asset group. The TAMP also outlines our approach to Risk and Climate Change (see below).

All of our maintenance activities are undertaken following industry best practices with each asset group having a ‘future development’ narrative within its specific area of the TAMP.

We established a Highways Transformation Board in December 2022 which aimed to look at a range of innovations and efficiencies, as well as improving the customer journey. There are a number of initiatives we have introduced including:

Find and Fix defect gangs.
The use of more environmentally friendly cold material for routine safety defects.
Trialling of several pothole repair machines in the ‘Battle of the Potholes’ and trials of thermal road repair, spray injection patching and mobile batched bituminous material (recycled and new)
The implementation of Fix My Street (see below)
Seasonal communications campaigns ongoing: focus on resurfacing, drain clearing and winter operations.
Extensive use of Social Media including videos highlighting a range of different Highways operations/initiatives.
Use of Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Future plans include:

Far wider use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance customer responses including a possible ‘chatbot’. 
Graphene use in surfacing materials to extend life. 
Auto scheduling developments to improve logistics.  
Video technology and AI processing to improve road condition surveys.
Enhanced data analysis including the use of heatmaps to target ‘hot spots’.

Specific plans for 2025/26

Each year plans are drawn up and an overview of our Annual routine maintenance is published. Our specific plans include:

The Highways & Infrastructure Service Plan 2025/26 which provides an overview of Highways team objectives, service drivers, budgets, key contracts, projects and more. It shows the performance indicators we use to measure success and includes a summary of the risks and opportunities for the service.
A summary of winter gritting operations
Our grassing cutting programme
County resurfacing and surface dressing works where we have planned to resurface/surface dress over 100 miles of road in 2025/26.
Gully emptying schedules

We have included additional amounts for footways and structures within the ‘Structural Maintenance’ element of our Capital programme for 2025/26. The number of potholes we are estimating to fill is difficult to estimate as this is very much dependent upon weather conditions including snow/frost/rainfall. At the end of May 2025 we had fixed 11,378 safety defects in the current financial year which is 8% higher than in the same period in 2024/25.

Streetworks

The Streetworks Team plays a vital role in keeping traffic flowing smoothly across our roads. Under national legislation—the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 and the Traffic Management Act 2004—we're responsible for making sure roadworks and other activities on our network cause as little disruption as possible.

As the central coordination hub for all highway works, we oversee and regulate activities carried out by utility companies (such as gas, electricity, water, and telecoms providers). Our responsibilities include inspecting works at various stages—from start to finish—and ensuring everything meets required standards. We also coordinate different projects to minimise the impact on road users, especially during major closures or when several works are planned in the same area.

To protect road space and keep traffic moving, we carefully manage the timing of works, challenge excessive durations, and prevent overlapping projects. Where necessary, we issue penalties for over-running works. In addition, we handle a range of legal permissions including road closure applications, temporary traffic light licences, private contractor licences (Section 50), and any requests to switch off permanent traffic signals during works.

Climate change, resilience and adaptation

Gloucestershire County Council has its own Climate Change Strategy and its Fifth Annual Report was published in January 2025. There is also a Greener Gloucestershire Dashboard which sets out our approach.

It is recognised that Climate Change has impacted much of our road network, particularly drainage, infrastructure and geotechnical assets. Chapter 9 of the TAMP highlights the impact of climate change on our network and this is complemented by our Adverse Weather Plan. The Council also has a Flood Team which has a leading strategic role with further information being available at: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/planning-and-environment/flood-risk-management.

Decarbonising highway operations is a key focus for achieving net-zero emissions in transportation and we have worked both internally, and with our contract partners, to:

Increase awareness of all staff in understanding the negative impacts of highway maintenance activities.
Adopt new technologies, materials and more efficient processes.
Consider the supply chain, reducing (wherever possible) the carbon costs associated with delivering maintenance works.

Additional information on plans

Since its introduction in November 2023, the FixMyStreet (FMS) application has significantly shifted public reporting towards online platforms. Over 60% of issues are now reported online each month, compared to 38% before the launch of FMS.

Integrated with our Customer Management System (CONFIRM), FMS streamlines processes by reducing manual tasks and minimising reporting errors. Subscribers can track the progress of their reported issues, including updates when problems are resolved. To ensure continued improvement, anyone with a resolved FMS issue is invited to complete a monthly satisfaction survey, providing valuable feedback on service effectiveness.

Future enhancements to FMS are in progress, including integration with District Councils in Gloucestershire and the deployment of additional asset layers, such as street lighting, to create a more accurate and informative view of our network.

Overall strategy

Our approach to Asset Management is published on our website. The Highways Asset Management Policy lays out the principles with which we manage the local road network. It shows how effective asset management will help achieve the council’s Local Transport Plan objectives and support the delivery of the County’s strategic priorities, such as tackling climate change, sustainable growth and improving our roads.

The Highways Asset Management Strategy expands on the principles of the Highways Asset Management Policy. It sets out how we use asset management to meet our long-term corporate objectives, including statutory obligations, stakeholder needs and the overall performance of our assets. It also provides a look forward to how we will grow and mature our capacity and capability further to achieve greater efficiency and value for money.

Our approach to individual asset groups is detailed within the TAMP, with each asset group having its own Lifecycle Plan. The plan includes our challenges in the future and an estimation of the standstill and backlog costs associated with each asset group. The TAMP also outlines our approach to Risk and Climate Change (see below).

All of our maintenance activities are undertaken following industry best practices with each asset group having a ‘future development’ narrative within its specific area of the TAMP.

We established a Highways Transformation Board in December 2022 which aimed to look at a range of innovations and efficiencies, as well as improving the customer journey. There are a number of initiatives we have introduced including:

Find and Fix defect gangs.
The use of more environmentally friendly cold material for routine safety defects.
Trialling of several pothole repair machines in the ‘Battle of the Potholes’ and trials of thermal road repair, spray injection patching and mobile batched bituminous material (recycled and new)
The implementation of Fix My Street (see below)
Seasonal communications campaigns ongoing: focus on resurfacing, drain clearing and winter operations.
Extensive use of Social Media including videos highlighting a range of different Highways operations/initiatives.
Use of Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Future plans include:

Far wider use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance customer responses including a possible ‘chatbot’. 
Graphene use in surfacing materials to extend life. 
Auto scheduling developments to improve logistics.  
Video technology and AI processing to improve road condition surveys.
Enhanced data analysis including the use of heatmaps to target ‘hot spots’.

Specific plans for 2025/26

Each year plans are drawn up and an overview of our Annual routine maintenance is published. Our specific plans include:

The Highways & Infrastructure Service Plan 2025/26 which provides an overview of Highways team objectives, service drivers, budgets, key contracts, projects and more. It shows the performance indicators we use to measure success and includes a summary of the risks and opportunities for the service.
A summary of winter gritting operations
Our grassing cutting programme
County resurfacing and surface dressing works where we have planned to resurface/surface dress over 100 miles of road in 2025/26.
Gully emptying schedules

We have included additional amounts for footways and structures within the ‘Structural Maintenance’ element of our Capital programme for 2025/26. The number of potholes we are estimating to fill is difficult to estimate as this is very much dependent upon weather conditions including snow/frost/rainfall. At the end of May 2025 we had fixed 11,378 safety defects in the current financial year which is 8% higher than in the same period in 2024/25.

Streetworks

The Streetworks Team plays a vital role in keeping traffic flowing smoothly across our roads. Under national legislation—the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 and the Traffic Management Act 2004—we're responsible for making sure roadworks and other activities on our network cause as little disruption as possible.

As the central coordination hub for all highway works, we oversee and regulate activities carried out by utility companies (such as gas, electricity, water, and telecoms providers). Our responsibilities include inspecting works at various stages—from start to finish—and ensuring everything meets required standards. We also coordinate different projects to minimise the impact on road users, especially during major closures or when several works are planned in the same area.

To protect road space and keep traffic moving, we carefully manage the timing of works, challenge excessive durations, and prevent overlapping projects. Where necessary, we issue penalties for over-running works. In addition, we handle a range of legal permissions including road closure applications, temporary traffic light licences, private contractor licences (Section 50), and any requests to switch off permanent traffic signals during works.

Climate change, resilience and adaptation

Gloucestershire County Council has its own Climate Change Strategy and its Fifth Annual Report was published in January 2025. There is also a Greener Gloucestershire Dashboard which sets out our approach.

It is recognised that Climate Change has impacted much of our road network, particularly drainage, infrastructure and geotechnical assets. Chapter 9 of the TAMP highlights the impact of climate change on our network and this is complemented by our Adverse Weather Plan. The Council also has a Flood Team which has a leading strategic role with further information being available at: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/planning-and-environment/flood-risk-management.

Decarbonising highway operations is a key focus for achieving net-zero emissions in transportation and we have worked both internally, and with our contract partners, to:

Increase awareness of all staff in understanding the negative impacts of highway maintenance activities.
Adopt new technologies, materials and more efficient processes.
Consider the supply chain, reducing (wherever possible) the carbon costs associated with delivering maintenance works.

Additional information on plans

Since its introduction in November 2023, the FixMyStreet (FMS) application has significantly shifted public reporting towards online platforms. Over 60% of issues are now reported online each month, compared to 38% before the launch of FMS.

Integrated with our Customer Management System (CONFIRM), FMS streamlines processes by reducing manual tasks and minimising reporting errors. Subscribers can track the progress of their reported issues, including updates when problems are resolved. To ensure continued improvement, anyone with a resolved FMS issue is invited to complete a monthly satisfaction survey, providing valuable feedback on service effectiveness.

Future enhancements to FMS are in progress, including integration with District Councils in Gloucestershire and the deployment of additional asset layers, such as street lighting, to create a more accurate and informative view of our network.

Local highways maintenance transparency report

Annex A

Overall strategy

Specific plans for 2025/26

Streetworks

Climate change, resilience and adaptation

Additional information on plans

Overall strategy

Specific plans for 2025/26

Streetworks

Climate change, resilience and adaptation

Additional information on plans

Local highway maintenance transparency report Annex B