Local highways maintenance transparency report

Condition of local roads

Cheshire East Council carry out annual carriageway surveys of the network to monitor the current condition and assist with the development of annual programmes and lifecycle planning.

Annual carriageway surveys

SCANNER, which stands for Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads, is a carriageway assessment method used on our Classified Principal A roads and Classified Non-Principal B and C road network. It utilises state of the art technology to provide comprehensive and completely objective surface and structural condition data.

Councils use road condition surveys to assess the state of their roads. The results are grouped into three categories:

• Green – the road is in good condition and no further investigation or treatment is required
• Amber – the road may need maintenance soon
• Red – the road is in poor condition and should be considered for maintenance

Road condition data for Unclassified roads in England is currently collected using Coarse Visual Inspections (CVI) surveys, undertaken by accredited inspectors that determine the condition of the network that needs to be considered for maintenance work.

• Red – the road is in poor condition and should be considered for maintenance

The following tables show the condition of the highway network by road classification, the percentages in the red column shown the percentage of the road network that may be considered for some form of maintenance treatment. 

Percentage of A roads in each condition category

Highway maintenance spending

Year	Red	Amber	Green
2023	4%	28%	68%
2024	3%	27%	70%
2025	4%	26%	70%

SCANNER  surveys are carried out across 100% of the Classified Principal A road network over a 1-year period.

Percentage of B and C roads in each condition category

Highway maintenance spending

Year	Red	Amber	Green
2023	5%	29%	66%
2024	5%	31%	64%
2025	5%	30%*	64%

SCANNER  surveys are carried out across 100% of the B road network 50% of the C Road network over a 2-year period.

*The 2025 percentages may not total exactly 100% because the published figures are rounded to the nearest whole percentage point.

Percentage of U roads in the red category

Highway maintenance spending

Year	Red
2023	13%
2024	11%
2025	15%

CVI  surveys are carried out annually across 100% of the Unclassified Road network over a 2-year period.

Additional information on condition

Annually there is a statutory requirement for authorities to report the above road condition data to the Department of Transport, this information is then published on GOV.UK.

It's important to note that the data for the unclassified road network experiences more annual fluctuations compared to other road indicators. This is because there is no standardised method for Local Authorities to collect road condition data for unclassified roads. Therefore, caution should be exercised when comparing Local Authorities due to variations in survey methods and coverage.

From 2026/27 a new methodology will be used based on the BSI (British Standards Institution) PAS2161 standard. Local Highway Authorities will be required to use a supplier that has been accredited against PAS2161. This new standard will categorise roads into five categories instead of three to help government gain a more detailed understanding of road condition in England.