Local Highway Maintenance Transparency Report

The tables on this page show the current and past condition of our road network.

We divided road conditions into three categories:

• green - no further investigation or treatment required
• amber - maintenance may be required soon
• red - should be considered for maintenance

We collect our condition data every year. It covers:

• A roads
• C and B roads
• U roads

Percentage of A roads in each condition category

Summary of findings

From this data we can see that in the last 3 years:

• our A roads have shown a slight improvement
• A roads in the red category have fallen by around 2%

We believe this is due to our:

• risk management process
• large investment in resurfacing work over the last 5 years

Percentage of B and C roads in each condition category

Summary of findings

From this data we can see that:

• fewer B and C roads are in the red category compared to last year
• road conditions overall have improved in the last 4 years

Percentage of U roads in each condition category

Summary of findings

U roads make up the largest part of our highway network (83%).

From this data we can see that:

• we have kept over 70% of U roads in amber and green condition over the last 4 years
• U roads have not got worse overall during the last 4 years

How do we measure road conditions

Most local authorities use a surface condition assessment for the national network of roads (SCANNER).

Here in Southend, we use Gaist surveys. These give us the ability to achieve the yearly survey at much lower cost.

BSI PAS2161 standard

From 2026 to 2027, we will use new methods based on the BSI PAS2161 standard.

This new standard will group roads into 5 categories instead of 3. This will help the government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England. In Southend, we are already using a supplier who reports our data in the 5 condition categories.

We will require all future suppliers to be accredited to this new standard.

More information on condition

We use SCRIM surveys to measure skid resistance. This data helps us to plan future road schemes alongside our Highways Improvement programme. We also send a report to the Department for Transport (DfT) each year.

To help with decision making and budget planning, we have gathered visual conditions of other important assets.

We achieved this through:

• a major update of our assets register
• the collection of over a million data points

As an example, we reported the visual condition of road signs as:

• 1% - new condition
• 69% - good condition
• 21% - average condition
• 6% - poor condition
• 3% - end of service life condition