Planned, routine and reactive road maintenance information

How we are repairing the roads and footways to ensure they are safe to use.

Planned capital programme

We have a planned programme of works that are carried out every year to fix issues on the highway network. This work relates to different asset types such as roads, street lighting, bridges, footways and cycleways. The current proposed programme for 2025/26 is shown in the link below (a mapped version), along with the current approved budget splits for 2024-35.

This ‘Highway Capital Programme – map view’ also shows up to date information such as Provisional Start Date, Work Start Date, Duration and Traffic Management of the works. 

Drainage

We will proactively clean every gully, catchpit, and associated pipework. This approach improves upon previous years, where gullies were cleaned based on risk, resulting in some areas not being cleaned regularly.

Surface Dressing

Surface dressing is a treatment that helps prevent potholes from forming in the future. This is achieved by addressing any structural issues beforehand, followed by sealing the road with bitumen and chippings. Additionally, this process improves the surface texture, thereby enhancing skid resistance

With programmes such as Surface Dressing, the dates are updated daily if changes are made to ensure the most up-to-date information can be provided. There may also be other follow-up works, such as sweeping and lining, that occur after the main works.

Looking after our roads

Our highways are maintained and repairs identified either through public reports or during our routine inspections. We investigate these reports using the council’s intervention policy and professional judgement.

We are currently managing a considerable number of enquiries and ordering a significant number of repairs. We are working with our contractor Milestone to ensure that repairs are made and to make more resources available.

We are also looking at innovative methods and materials for our reactive and planned works. These are:

  • Using smaller aggregate
  • Patching when several potholes are in the same area, rather than filling individually
  • Enabling Milestone to fix nearby potholes even if not ordered.
  • Using graphene-enhanced asphalt on some of our resurfacing works.
  • Using warm-mix asphalt
  • Incorporating recycled materials where possible

Routine inspection frequencies

The routine inspection frequencies and methods used are detailed in the Highways Inspection Safety Policy.

Reporting a problem

You can report any defect found with the highways at any time using Fix My Street.