Local highways maintenance transparency report - September 2026

As Highway Authority Lancashire County Council maintains:

• 7104 km of carriageways, including 10km of the M65 motorway, and 6868 km of footways and cycleways in Lancashire.

• 294,000 gullies,

• 163,00 streetlights, signs and illuminated bollards,

• 700 traffic signal installations and crossings

• 1832 bridges and 70km of retaining walls

As well as the main assets we also maintain many other highway assets such as 140km of Vehicle Restraint Systems and 85 cattle grids, and many road signs, pedestrian guard rails etc.

The area covered by Lancashire County Council is large and diverse; with low lying areas to the west, with many roads built on peat, to the hills and valleys of the east of the county. Lancashire also has a mix of rural and urban areas, much of the infrastructure being built in the industrial revolution of the 19th Century. As such the distribution and type of assets we maintain varies across the county and provide different challenged. These include moss roads in the west built on peat, with the east of the county having the majority of bridges and retaining walls, many built in the 19th Century.

Each one of these asset types is considered in the Highway Asset Management Plan for Lancashire under a condition led risk-based approach for maintenance.

We closely monitor the condition of our carriageways. This allows us to identify areas to undertake both structural repairs and preventative maintenance and prioritise works across the whole network. 

Road condition assessments on the local classified road network in England are currently made predominantly using Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER) laser-based technology. 

A roads

B and C roads

U roads

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.

The published official statistics for road condition include more detail about the methodology, timing and coverage of this data.

Additional information on carriageway condition

We undertake SCANNER surveys on our classified road network annually, covering A, B and C class roads to produce national indicator reports for the classified road network.

The condition of our classified road network has remained relatively stable over the last four years. There has been slight deterioration in the amber category during 2024 to 2025. As a result, the focus for 2026/27 is to invest more money in the classified network to help ensure it remains in good condition and to undertake preventative maintenance.

What is a pothole?

Lancashire County Council in general defines a pothole as a loss of material from part or all of the surfacing layers creating a sharp-edged hole or void. However, the associated response depends upon the depth, diameter, location, and a dynamic risk assessment of the defect. Potholes are assessed by comparing their measured dimensions against our investigatory criteria to assign an impact rating of High, Medium or Low. This impact rating is then combined with the road or footway hierarchy using the relevant risk matrix to determine the initial response category and repair timescale. Inspectors may then adjust the response based on a dynamic site-specific risk assessment considering factors such as defect location, traffic volumes, vulnerable road users and the likelihood of deterioration. Further details of our approach are set out within our Highway safety inspection policy.

What we are doing to tackle potholes

Lancashire County Council tackles potholes through a combination of regular highway inspections, risk-based repairs, preventative maintenance, and long-term asset management. Under its Highway Safety Inspection Policy, the council carries out routine inspections to identify defects and prioritises repairs according to the level of risk they pose to road users, with defined response times for different categories of defect.

Rather than focusing solely on repairing the worst potholes after they appear, the council's Highway Management Plan and Highway Asset Management Plan promote a preventative approach, using condition surveys and engineering data to identify roads that would benefit from early intervention such as surface dressing and resurfacing. This "prevention is better than cure" strategy helps extend the life of road surfaces, slows deterioration, reduces the number of potholes that develop, and ensures that available funding is targeted where it will deliver the greatest long-term benefit for Lancashire's highway network.

Permanent first-time repairs are prioritised, with preventative maintenance embedded. Our managed service contract enables permanent, high-quality warrantied repairs through a range of traditional and innovative methods that address both safety defects and surrounding deterioration, preventing further failures and repeat visits, and delivering best value for money. This approach contributed to a 30% reduction in carriageway defects identified on the network in 2025/26, with 58,494 defects identified compared to 83,166 in 2024/25.

How members of public can report potholes and other highway defects

Members of the public can report potholes and other highway defects to Lancashire County Council through the council's website or Love Clean Streets mobile app, which is the council's preferred reporting method. When submitting a report, residents should provide the location of the defect, a description, and, where safe to do so, a photograph. The system can be used to report a wide range of issues including potholes, faulty streetlights, damaged signs, blocked drains, flooding, overgrown vegetation, road marking defects and other highway hazards. Alternatively, highways issues can be reported by telephone on 0300 123 6780.

What happens after a pothole is reported

When a pothole is reported to Lancashire County Council, it is logged in the council's highways asset management system and assessed by the highways team within two working days. The assessment determines whether the defect meets the council's intervention criteria. If it does, the pothole is prioritised according to the level of risk and added to a repair programme. The council aims to repair qualifying potholes within 20 working days, although more serious defects may be made safe sooner through emergency or temporary repairs. Customers can monitor the status and progress of their report through the council's online reporting system

Spending on highways maintenance

Note; Spending in the table above does not equal the funding in the table below because the spending table includes spend funded from prior year funding whereas the funding table shows in year funding only.

Where our funding for highways maintenance comes from

Our plans for highways maintenance for 2026-27

During 2026/27 we plan to undertake the following carriageway and footway works:

• ABC Surface Dressing\ Preventative treatments – 138.59

• ABC Resurfacing – 15.15km (Additional MSD 0.32km)

• Unclassified Road Surface Dressing\ Preventative treatments – 42.15km

• Unclassified Road Resurfacing – 9.25km (Additional MSD 0.16km)

• Footway Preventative treatments – 39.43km

• Footway Reconstruction - 0.17km

The programme of works was approved by Cabinet on of March and details of the report and approved scheme can be found here: Council - Issue - items at meetings - Proposed 2026/27 Highways Capital Programmes; with additional funds of £5m being approved in May'26.

Whilst the focus is on improving carriageways through named schemes and addressing defects through the Managed Service, works to other assets are also being carried out, this includes improvements to bridges, including the reinstatement of a retaining wall to support Haslingden Old Road (B6236) which collapsed during storms in January 2025, cleansing 158000 gullies and replacing 1800 lighting columns.

Full list of planned carriageway and footway works

A list of approved carriageway and footway schemes can be found via our Road Maintenance website: Road maintenance - Lancashire County Council along with other information on how we manage our roads. Link to Map: Road and Footway Improvement Programme Dashboard

How decisions are made on our maintenance plans

The principles behind the Highways Asset Management Plan for Lancashire allow us to prioritise works to make the best use of the funds we have.

Those principles are:

• Understand the condition of all our major asset groups

• Through a risk-based approach use life cycle modelling, condition assessment and other strategic factors to identify the most appropriate time to intervene using the 'prevention is better than cure' ethos.

• Produce and deliver a capital highway maintenance programme across the range of assets

• Continue to monitor and report the condition of our assets.

Lifecycle plans have been developed for the main asset groups and the Highways Asset Management Plan for Lancashire sets out for these asset groups the approach being adopted during the life of the plan, up to 2030.

We deliver highway maintenance through a mix of in-house services and external contractors through competitive procurement to ensure best price and quality.