Somerset Council’s Executive is set to give the green light to a £5m enhanced maintenance programme featuring a huge gully clearance push and work to tackle faded road markings, broken signs and overgrown pathways.
Councillors are expected to agree the first £2 million for 2026/27 next week (April 1) to get the programme running during this month.
Current road maintenance programmes prioritise safety critical works which can mean lower-level issues like faded road markings, broken signs and overgrown hedges are left unresolved, often for many years.
The new spending proposals will deliver a range of visible improvements like:
- clearing more drains and gullies,
- fixing and cleaning road signs,
- repainting faded road markings,
- collecting litter, and
- clearing overgrown vegetation, particularly on walking and cycling routes.
Improvements will also be made to the Council’s public reporting system, to make it even easier for residents to highlight any issues on the roads.
The work will be carried out by one of the Council’s current highways contractors, Kier, which will deal with signing, lining and gully clearance, as well as the Council’s own Open Spaces Team, which will tackle overgrown vegetation and other tidying work alongside collecting litter.
The enhanced gully emptying will see an intensive 1-year clearance in areas vulnerable to a 1 in 100-year flood events – adding up to about 65,000 extra gullies during the current year.
The £5 million maintenance programme will run for 3 years – 2026/27 to 2028/29 with the aim of making a big visible difference to communities from the start and during year 1.
While focusing mainly on vegetation clearance, the extra open spaces operatives will also be able to pick up other tasks while they are out and about such as graffiti removal and picking up litter.
Councillor Richard Wilkins, Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Transport and Waste Services said:
We listen to our communities when it comes to things they say are important.
Yes, urgent, safety critical maintenance of roads is paramount, and that will of course remain a key focus, but what we have heard time and time again is those less safety critical issues – dirty, damaged signs, cycleways and pathways that are continually overgrown, faded road markings – these are the things that frustrate people when they are left neglected.
£2m has already been identified from uncommitted funds following the setting of a balanced budget for 2026/27 and the balance of funding for subsequent years will be identified over the coming year.
If you spot a problem on the road you can report it quickly and easily via the Council’s Report a problem on the road webpage.
