Somerset Council ranks highly in new Department for Transport gradings for road condition and maintenance.
The new system unveiled by DfT scores all local councils in England across three different categories – condition of roads, best practice in terms of maintenance and capital spend.
In terms of road conditions Somerset Council ranks in the top 26 out of 153 authorities, with the overall condition of its A roads, B and C roads, as well as unclassified roads scoring green under the DfT’s ‘traffic light’ grading system.
The Council also scores green for its maintenance programme. This is based on the percentage of work which is preventative – i.e. aimed at stopping defects such as potholes from forming in the first place, rather than reactive.
The scoring means Somerset Council ranks in the top 21 out of 153 authorities for carrying out effective preventive road maintenance, such as resurfacing and surface dressing.
In 2025/26 the Council is scheduled to resurface 55 km of road across Somerset and 185 km of road is earmarked for preventative road treatments. Of the nearly £45 million of capital allocated by DfT for 2025/26 along with just under £5 million of revenue spend it is projected that 89 per cent will be spent on preventative treatments, an improvement on last year when 80 per cent was spent on preventative work.
Overall, across all three scores the Council is rated amber as it has been categorised by the Government as ‘red’ on capital spend, despite being on-track to spend 98 per cent of its annual DfT capital funding allocation by the end of this financial year.
Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Transport and Waste Services, Councillor Richard Wilkins said:
We are delighted to be scored among the top authorities in the country for road condition and the way we go about maintaining our roads. It underlines how important preventative work is in terms of stopping defects from forming and it shows our approach is successful.
What is confusing is how we are graded for spend, despite being forecast to spend virtually all of our Government allocation on preventative work, which is considered ‘best practice’ by DfT, we score a red category.
The new report shows that unlike many other authorities, we have managed to achieve a ‘green standard’ of road condition within the financial resources made available by Government, which demonstrates an exceptionally cost-effective service and value for money to the public purse.
However, we welcome the new transparency as it shows us as one of the most efficient authorities in the country.We know that there is much more to be done and we are committed to focusing our efforts on preventative work across Somerset to ensure the condition of our roads continue to vastly improve and remain amongst the best in the country.
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