Cambridgeshire County Council has responded to a request by the Department for Transport (DfT) for local highway authorities to produce detailed transparency reports on maintenance activities to secure additional funding.
Under the new requirements, 25% of the £500 million additional maintenance funding from Government for 2025-26 is contingent on authorities publishing reports by the end of June 2025 demonstrating compliance with best practice criteria.
The reports must detail five-year maintenance spending comparisons, network condition statistics, pothole repair estimates, and planned maintenance activities.
Authorities, such as the county council, must also submit additional information by October 2025 covering asset values and compliance with best practice criteria.
The requirements apply to all local highway authorities in England.
The council’s report was published today and is available on our website at: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/highways-transparency.
Key highlights from the report show:
- Since 2023-24, the amount of capital funding we spend on highway maintenance has increased by £35m, from £24m to £59m.
- The Council has allocated more than £73m for highways maintenance in 2025/26 inclusive of revenue funding.
- Over the last five years, we have repaired an average of 55,400 individual potholes each year.
In 2024/25 we:
- Spent more than £30m improving over 145 kilometres of roads county-wide.
- Reconstructed or resurfaced 166 roads.
- Spent more than £4.5m repairing 52,229 potholes across the county.
- Received 16,371 potholes reports from our residents.
- Spent more than £5m improving over 120km of key walking and cycling routes county-wide.
- Reconstructed or repaired 241 footpaths.
- Emptied and cleaned more than 35,000 drains.
- Upgraded 31 traffic signals.
- Recycled 41,000 tonnes of material and saved over 735 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent, through various sustainability and carbon reduction processes.
In 2025/26, we have planned the following improvements:
- 259 schemes to repair 135km of road (with over 60% being preventative treatment work).
- 253 schemes to repair key walking and cycling routes county-wide.
- 5 bridges will be upgraded.
- 20 traffic signals will be replaced/upgraded.
Cllr Alex Beckett, chair of the Highways and Transport Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said:
“We have listened to Cambridgeshire residents who tell us time and again they want the condition of the county’s highways network improved. So, against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and tight funding, we are spending record amounts to fix the backlog that built up over many years of austerity, because we know this is a priority.
“We are making good progress and, while there is still a long way to go, there are more positive improvements coming this year. We welcome the DfT’s new transparency guidance for local highways authorities because it fits with what we are already doing to change how we work and make sure we communicate openly and transparently with everyone who uses Cambridgeshire's highways network.”
