Ministers have named and shamed areas of England which are not fixing potholes in a bid to ensure a £7.3bn funding pot is being spent properly.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has published a map which classifies every local council as green, amber or red based on how much progress they make in repairing potholes in the short run and their planning on how to maintain roads better over the long term.
The move is part of a push by the Government to convince voters that its policies are having a direct, positive impact on their lives, including by punishing those local authorities which are accused of not spending the money they get from Whitehall in the most effective manner.
Many of the 13 councils on the red list insisted they had been wrongly classified and claimed that DfT had not given them a chance to prove they are maintaining local roads appropriately.
Since coming to power, Labour has committed £7.3bn to the repair and maintenance of England’s roads, in response to an increase in the number of potholes.
Most roads are managed by a council rather than the central government, meaning that the administration of the funding is divided between 154 different authorities.
The map produced by DfT is based on data showing the performance of each council on three metrics: the current condition of their roads, how much they are spending on repairs, and whether they are “following best practice in maintaining highways”.
Councils rated green – including Essex, Leeds, Wiltshire, Gloucester, Manchester and Lewisham – have been judged to excel on all three counts, with a long-term plan to prevent the creation of more potholes which will need filling in over coming years.
Amber-rated councils – the vast majority – are listed as requiring improvement in one or more area. The 13 councils on the red list are classed by DfT as failing to meet the minimum standard in at least one of the three criteria.
The “red” authorities are Bedford, Bolton, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Greenwich, Kensington and Chelsea, Leicestershire, North Lincolnshire, Slough, Suffolk, Waltham Forest, Westmorland and Furness, and West Northamptonshire. They will all receive “dedicated support to bring them in line with best practices”, according to the Government.
Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said: “For too long drivers have paid the price because our roads were left to deteriorate. I have heard time and again their frustration on footing the bill because they hit a pothole – money they should never have to spend in the first place.
“We’ve put our money where our mouth is, increasing the funding for local highway authorities with £7.3bn to fix roads and given them the long-term certainty they have been asking for.
“Now it’s over to them to spend the money wisely, and for the first time we are making sure the public can see how well councils are doing in delivering the improvements they want to see in their local area.”
In future, funding allocations will be linked to performance, meaning that those judged to be failing could miss out on money from Whitehall.
The map was welcomed by organisations representing drivers and cyclists, who said that fixing potholes is a top priority for road users.
But multiple councils placed on the red list hit back at the Government’s allegations.
Charlotte Hill, the Reform councillor responsible for overseeing Derbyshire’s roads, told The i Paper: “We have no idea how the DfT has judged us to be in their ‘red’ category. They have not told us why they judge us to be ‘red’… We strongly refute the fact that we are not an improving highways service and have asked for a meeting with officials as soon as possible.”
Peter Thornton, the Lib Dem councillor from Westmorland and Furness council, said that being placed on the red list did not “reflect the overall performance of our rural authority”, adding: “We will be actively engaging with the DfT to understand the methodology behind the overall rating and to identify steps for improvement.”
Labour councillor, Calum O’Byrne Mulligan of Greenwich council, said the rating was “misleading”, and added: “We do not believe it accurately reflects the reality in our borough.”
A spokesman for Bolton council insisted that its red rating was the result of an error in the data provided which wrongly suggested that it was not spending enough on roads.
Your next read
Slough council said its lack of investment was a result of “financial difficulties” and added that it was already starting to spend more on upgrading its road network for the future.
A spokesman for Suffolk Highways claimed there were “unfortunate inaccuracies in the data”, while West Northamptonshire council insisted its rating “does not reflect the network as it stands today”.
Clyde Loakes of Waltham Forest council added: “It is very difficult to understand how they have reached these conclusions. We are immensely proud of our track record of investing in and improving our highways infrastructure for all road users, especially the most vulnerable
