How we maintain local roads, pavements, and the wider highway network in Shropshire

What we are responsible for maintaining

Shropshire has a large highway network, covering over 5,100 km, and it is an intrinsic part of life in Shropshire. Due to limited alternative options, it's critically important for connecting communities, businesses, and key services as it supports almost all travel in the county whether by car, public transport, cycle or on foot. 

As well as roads, highway infrastructure includes footways and cycleways, traffic signals, lighting, bridges and other structures, drainage, barriers and signs. The council manages all these elements as a connected system, to ensure safe and efficient travel across the county. We manage:

• 5,057 km of carriageways
• 1,597 km of footways
• 70 km of cycleways
• 1,009 structures
• 20,313 street lights
• 3,626 traffic signals and signs

Many of our roads are evolved and are rural in nature with little structure or drainage which make them more susceptible to damage under heavy loading or adverse weather.

The county has a number of routes on the national Strategic Road Network which are managed by National Highways; these are: M54, A5, A49 south of A5, A458 west of A5 and A483.

Additional information on carriageway condition

Carriageway condition data has always been provided to DfT. Since 2020, condition data has been collected using alternative technology and at a frequency that supports the asset management approach; as a result, the official statistics have been qualified with a label (y); non-compliant condition data is provided in brackets. Exceptional financial issues in 2024 meant that surveys could not be completed; consequently, the required coverage for A, B & C Roads in 2025 could not be met so has been qualified as unavailable (x).

Surveys have already been commissioned so that the forthcoming DfT reporting requirements (PAS2161) will be fully met.

The unclassified network was surveyed in 2020 and in 2025. In accordance with our asset management strategy, we plan to survey the full unclassified network using new technology that is compliant with the requirements of PAS2161 and will share this with DfT in due course.

What we are doing about potholes and other road defects

What is a pothole?

A pothole is a defect that is greater than 150mm in diameter and deeper than 40mm; potholes are responded to in set timescales according to the risk presented. For example, a pothole that is greater than 100mm deep on a main road with result in an urgent response.

Potholes form when the surface ages allowing water to penetrate the surface. Under high pressures due to passing traffic or damage due to freezing, the material is weakened and then breaks up leaving a pothole behind.

What we are doing to tackle potholes

In 2025-26, we repaired 31,851 potholes, almost all of these were permanent repairs. As a result, few repeat defects occur. Seldom, it is more appropriate to do temporary repairs, pending a more permanent repair.

We have a substantial surface dressing programme with plans to increase this programme in future years. Surface dressing is the primary method available of sealing the road surface in order to prevent the ingress of water and consequential damage.

The location and time of all potholes is tracked. This data informs the council planned maintenance programmes to ensure that roads with a significant reactive maintenance burden are treated. The number of potholes and where these occur helps to identify maintenance treatments.

How members of public can report potholes and other highway defects

The public can report potholes and other defects online using FixMyStreet or by calling the council’s call centre. The Fix My Street portal is also embedded in the council’s website making it easy for members of the public to find; this portal can be found at: improvingyourroads.shropshire.gov.uk. We are actively reviewing how FixMyStreet can be best used to improve both automatic and direct customer feedback.

What happens after a pothole is reported

All enquiries are routed to a central management system and allocated to a member of staff. Typically, resolving the enquiry will require a site visit or reference to previous inspections and can be resolved by undertaking work, linking the enquiry to existing work, or simply waiting until the road is next inspected. If new work is required, a job can be arranged there and then using the portable devices linked to the central management system. Details of the resolution will be fed back to the person who raised the enquiry.

What we spend to maintain the highway network and where the funding is coming from

Our maintenance plans for this year

Our plans for highways maintenance for 2026-27

Preventative maintenance is the focus of the 2026/27 highways maintenance programme with the majority of treatments used on roads and pavements being surface treatments. Some roads and pavements cannot be maintained using surface treatments, these are typically resurfaced using an overlay or thin inlay. Underlying this work is the concept of doing the right treatment at the right time, this means that some roads and pavements can remain with moderate deterioration but kept safe until such point that resurfacing proves to be value for money.

The 2026-27 highways maintenance programme comprises:

• 58 km of roads to be resurfaced
• 134 km of roads to be treated using a road surface treatment
• 104 km of roads to be patched
• 18 km of pavements to be renewed
• 24 structures to be maintained

Full list of planned carriageway and footway works

A list of our planned carriageway and footway works can be found on our dedicated page.

How decisions are made on our maintenance plans

Shropshire Council prioritises its highways maintenance work using a data-led approach. This approach comprises the collection and analysis of condition data, accurate records of defects found during safety inspections, and considers where customers are reporting concerns. These three aspects are balanced to form the priority to target investment where it will have the greatest impact on road condition, safety and long term financial risk.

An initial programme of work is formed that is then ‘sense-checked’ using local-intelligence as well as maximising opportunities to coordinate work with utility companies to reduce disruption, and considering future risks to the network.

Programmes are formed over multiple years to plan preparatory work to reduce financial risks and drive efficiency, but formally prepared annually to ensure that the right work is done at the right time.