Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report

This page provides an in-depth overview of our highway maintenance strategy and spending, aligning with the Department for Transport’s funding criteria for 2025–2026. It outlines historical and current expenditure on capital and revenue-funded activities, details the overall condition of our road network, and highlights our efforts for road maintenance in both preventative and reactive repairs.

By transparently sharing information, we aim to clearly communicate to our communities our commitment to best practice, long-term management of highways.

Our highway network

Shropshire has a large highway network, covering over 5,100 km, and it's an intrinsic part of life in Shropshire. Due to limited alternative options, it's critically important for connecting communities, businesses and key services, and 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. We manage all of these elements as a connected system, to ensure safe and efficient travel across the county.

Shropshire 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. We manage other A roads, all B and C roads and unclassified roads.

Spending on highways maintenance

Highway maintenance spending is typically divided into capital and revenue spending, each serving a different purpose.

• Capital spending is used to improve or extend the life of roads and other infrastructure. This spending  usually comprises one-off investments that make lasting improvements
• Revenue spending covers day-to-day maintenance and repairs to keep roads safe and usable

Preventative maintenance is work that is done early enough in the life-cycle of infrastructure to prevent more serious deterioration in the future. The most common form of this type of maintenance in Shropshire is surface dressing, where a layer of bitumen and chippings is used to seal the road surface and restore a good running surface.

Reactive maintenance is what we need to do following an inspection, and must complete within a specified timescale. The most common type of reactive maintenance is repairs to roads due to potholes.

Table 3 shows the amount of roads resurfaced, structures repaired (such as bridges) and potholes filled in recent years.

We know that potholes are a major frustration for road users. To manage them effectively, every pothole is recorded during highway safety inspections, including its location and when it was repaired. This data helps us track performance and to demonstrate that we're fulfilling our statutory duties. By keeping these detailed records, we can improve road maintenance and make smarter decisions about where to invest in repairs to reduce the number of potholes over time.

Furthermore, we strive for right-first-time, permanent reactive repairs. For the period 2024 to 2025, 99% of defects repaired permanently. Investing well and repairing defects properly preserves funding for preventative maintenance.

Condition of local roads

The condition of local classified roads in England is categorised into:

• Green – no further investigation or treatment required
• Amber – maintenance may be required soon
• Red – should be considered for maintenance

Local classified roads in England are typically surveyed using a laser-based, surface condition assessment called SCANNER. The percentage of the network length in the red category is presented as the network condition indicator.

We assess the condition of all roads in the county using structured, visual surveys, which provide a better representation of road condition compared to SCANNER surveys, and are more closely related to the experience of highway users in Shropshire. Using this method, we've been able to consider the whole network consistently, and prioritise maintenance work in a way that better reflects public expectations.

The surveys are carried out every two years on main roads and every four years on minor roads; main roads are mostly A and B roads, minor roads include most C roads and unclassified roads. In 2024 surveys were delayed until this year. The unclassified network hasn't been surveyed since 2020, and is due to be surveyed by 2026. Evidence from reactive repairs suggests that this area of the network has deteriorated through recent winters, and we aim to measure the scale of this deterioration as soon as possible.

In addition to the condition data, we monitor where reactive defects are appearing and how customers are reporting issues on the network. This adds further quality to the basic condition data to improve how investment is prioritised.

From 2026 to 2027 a new methodology will be used based on the BSI PAS2161 standard. 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. We're already planning future surveys that will meet this standard.

Plans

Our maintenance strategy

Our asset management strategy outlines how we maintain and improve the highway network.

We manage our highway infrastructure assets by:

• Keeping good data. We collect detailed information on road conditions and how the network is used
• Planning for the future. Different maintenance strategies are considered to find the most effective approach
• Coordinating work. An integrated works programme ensures that different types of maintenance are planned together over several years

Maintenance strategies are defined in the asset management strategy for all key asset types, and specifically for roads.

• We set a baseline funding requirement to understand what we need to ensure the network performs well
• Money is spent where it will have the biggest impact, based on improving road condition and reducing financial risks in the long-term
• Maintenance activity is focused on doing what's needed for the type of road, and minimising the cost over the whole life of the road 
• Roads are maintained before major deterioration occurs, reducing long-term costs. Preventative surface treatments are used at the right time to extend road life
• Reactive repairs (such as pothole fixes) should be done correctly the first time to avoid repeated work

This strategy helps to keep roads in good condition while making the best use of available funding.

We work closely with other local councils through the Midlands Highway Alliance, and we're part of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG). These partnerships help us to stay up to date with the best practice and innovations to manage and improve roads.

An example of our innovation was being the first council to award a contract under the LCRIG Innovation Procurement System. The contract set in place a ‘mixed economy’ for highway maintenance that has delivered lower repair costs. As a result, we won the Collaborative Partnership Award at the Department for Transport’s Special Recognition Awards in 2024.

Specific plans for 2025 to 2026

The 2025/26 programme will see up to 94 miles of road treated. In accordance with the asset management strategy, preventative surface treatments form the majority of work planned.

We've received extra funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) for 2025/26. This extra funding will be used to improve roads, bridges and footways. It will help to reduce future maintenance costs and make the network more resilient to extreme weather. With the extra funding:

• We'll repair winter damage. Recent harsh winters have caused serious damage to smaller rural roads, leading to closures, landslips, and potholes. The priority is to reopen roads, strengthen them for future winters, and reduce emergency repairs. This work is focused on rural C and U roads, and will typically consist of small sections of resurfacing
• We'll Increase the amount of preventative maintenance. In accordance with our maintenance strategy, a portion of this extra funding will be used to undertake patch repairs on roads in readiness for surface dressing in 2026 and beyond. This will extend the amount of preventative maintenance possible
• We'll undertake repairs to bridges. The condition of our bridges is declining, so extra funding will go towards more maintenance. Our current plan of maintenance includes the following structures:
• Betton Street railway footbridge
• Montague St railway footbridge
• Meole Brace Bridge
• Corve Culvert
• Greyfriars footbridge
• Chirbury to Churchstoke embankment slip
• Rindleford Bridge
• Nant Lane retaining wall
• Holbrook Coppice (boundary)
• Hope Mill embankment slip
• Grove Farm Culvert, Cardington
• Baveney Brook Highway Culvert, Cleobury Mortimer
• Ryhd Meredith Bridge
• Chapel Lawn retaining wall
• Boreton Ford footbridge
• Cardington North Bridge
• Bronygarth Bridge
• We'll improve footways. Around 30 footways in urban areas are due to receive maintenance
• We'll resurface more roads. Inflation has made resurfacing more expensive in recent years, creating a backlog of maintenance. If we secure incentive funding of the extra funding announced, an additional 13km of roads are planned to be resurfaced

In addition to planned work, reactive maintenance will be still be required. We expect to repair around 35,000 potholes this year.

How we coordinate work

We manage road maintenance through an integrated highway maintenance programme. This programme includes all planned work for the current year, as well as future projects. It helps us to minimise disruption by coordinating different types of work, and to schedule repairs efficiently to ensure long-term benefits.

Our Street Works team works closely with utility companies to align our highway maintenance with other street works, ensuring that all parties share information and plan effectively.

By planning ahead and working with others, we ensure high-quality, long-lasting road improvements while reducing unnecessary disruption.

How we're managing climate change, including adaptation and resilience

We've taken significant steps to address climate change, resilience, and adaptation in our highway maintenance operations since declaring a climate emergency in 2019. Here are the key initiatives for highway infrastructure:

• Installing LED street lighting. £6.8 million has been invested in replacing ageing street lamps with energy-efficient LED lighting, which lasts longer and reduces carbon emissions
• Using lower carbon asphalt: we've adopted lower carbon asphalt materials by default. These materials are produced at lower temperatures, reducing emissions but also offering a longer lifespan, which reduces future carbon impacts
• Focusing on preventative maintenance: preventative maintenance is accepted as a lower carbon way of keeping a network in good condition and it remains a key part of our highway maintenance strategy.

As well as taking action to reduce the carbon emitted today, all highway maintenance is planned using a whole-life approach. Actions taken today are considered against future impacts so that short-term quick wins aren't chosen at the expense of long-term benefits. In this way, the number of maintenance treatments are minimised, as are future carbon emissions.

We understand that the impacts of climate change are already being felt. Recent winters have brought severe conditions, including ice and significant rainfall, leading to increased damage to the network. As well as additional potholes, landslips have been a particular issue, prompting the use of the extra funding to address them.

We're proactively managing the impacts of climate change through the establishment of a 'resilient network'. This network is used to plan maintenance as part of an integrated highway maintenance programme. This part of the wider network is maintained with risk reduction in mind, receiving treatment earlier than other roads and often using higher-quality materials to ensure longer life spans between treatments. This ensures that key routes remain available despite climate challenges.

Our approach balances immediate carbon reduction with long-term sustainability, ensuring that infrastructure remains resilient in the face of climate change.