Source
Department for Transport — Local road maintenance ratings 2025 to 2026
greenOverall|green Conditiongreen Spendamber Best Practice
Gloucestershire: Green-Rated, Still Filling 48,000 Potholes a Year
Gloucestershire County Council earns GREEN DfT scorecards for condition and spend on a 5,868km network — yet its own transparency report records 47,981 pothole repairs in 2024/25, 23.7% of U-roads in RED condition, and an AMBER best-practice scorecard. GREEN is a network average. Your claim turns on the specific defect.
47,981
Potholes filled in 2024/25
Part of 62,131 recorded safety defects — roughly 131 pothole repairs every day across Gloucestershire, despite three GREEN DfT scorecards.
What GREEN Actually Means Here
Three GREEN scorecards and one AMBER — the honest read before you claim
| Scorecard | Rating | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | green | Combined network performance vs other authorities |
| Condition | green | SCANNER survey results on classified roads |
| Spend | green | Investment relative to DfT allocation and network need |
| Best Practice | amber | Asset management evidence, data submission, documented processes |
What GREEN means: Gloucestershire performs above average compared to other councils — many of whom are failing. Classified A-roads are 86% green-condition; B and C roads sit at 71% green. The council spends well beyond its DfT capital allocation and publishes a detailed Transport Asset Management Plan updated in April 2025.
Context for your claim: You are dealing with a competent authority, not systematic neglect. Section 58 will be well-documented. But GREEN does not mean zero defects — the council recorded 200,996 pothole repairs over five years and admits U-road condition data uses a non-comparable methodology. Your claim needs the specific defect, not a generic accusation of failure.
The Scale of Gloucestershire's Network
5,868km of adopted roads — more than half unclassified
| Asset | Length | Share of carriageway |
|---|---|---|
| A roads | 594.9km | 10.1% |
| B and C roads | 1,984.3km | 33.8% |
| U roads (unclassified) | 3,283.2km | 56.0% |
| Total roads | 5,868.4km | 100% |
3,729km
Footways maintained
5,645km
Public rights of way
426km
Cycleways
Gloucestershire does not maintain 228km of trunk roads and motorways — those fall to National Highways. For pothole damage claims on adopted county roads, Gloucestershire County Council is the highway authority under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980.
What The Condition Data Shows
Five years of SCANNER data on classified roads — and a worsening U-road picture
A roads (594.9km): genuinely strong
1%
RED (2024)
down from 2% in 2020
13%
Amber
down from 17% in 2020
86%
Green
up from 81% in 2020
50% of A roads surveyed in both directions, annually. Credit where due: main roads have improved. Claims on A-roads face the strongest Section 58 defence.
B and C roads (1,984.3km): stable but a third in amber
| Year | Red | Amber | Green |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3% | 26% | 71% |
| 2021 | 4% | 26% | 70% |
| 2022 | 5% | 27% | 68% |
| 2023 | 4% | 25% | 71% |
| 2024 | 4% | 25% | 71% |
50% of B and C roads surveyed in both directions, annually. RED has ticked up from 3% to 4% over five years; 29% of the B/C network is in RED or amber — maintenance may be required soon on roughly 575km.
U roads (3,283.2km): RED condition nearly doubled
| Year | U-roads in RED condition |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 12% |
| 2021 | 12% |
| 2022 | 14.5% |
| 2023 | 18.2% |
| 2024 | 23.7% |
At 23.7%, roughly 778km of Gloucestershire's unclassified network is in RED condition — village lanes, estate roads and rural routes where most residents drive daily. 33% of U-roads are surveyed in a single direction, annually.
"The "red" values indicated in the above U road table are generated using advice from system suppliers, they were not created using a nationally recognised or comparable data standard. We changed to a new system/methodology in 2022 (see below) so previous annual figures are not directly comparable."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
The Vaisala Road-AI switch
"Since 2022, we have been using the Vaisala Road-AI system to identify and monitor the condition of our Unclassified roads. A complete network survey was completed in 3 years, and our aim is to survey 1/3 of this network (800km) on an annual basis."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
Why this matters for Section 58
Any given U-road may not have been condition-surveyed in the current year — only one-third of the 3,283km network is assessed annually. The council documents that pre-2022 U-road RED figures used a different methodology entirely.
For your claim: ask when your road was last surveyed, whether it sits in the 23.7% RED category, and whether safety inspections — separate from condition surveys — should have caught the defect before it damaged your vehicle.
Following The Money
Gloucestershire spends well beyond its DfT allocation — but 42% of 2024/25 maintenance was reactive
| Year | DfT capital allocation | Capital spend | Revenue spend | Preventative | Reactive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | £30.0m | £42.9m | £20.6m | 68% | 32% |
| 2021/22 | £22.3m | £30.0m | £20.3m | 60% | 40% |
| 2022/23 | £22.3m | £39.4m | £29.1m | 57% | 43% |
| 2023/24 | £29.0m | £42.9m | £30.0m | 59% | 41% |
| 2024/25 | £25.1m | £45.7m | £33.2m | 58% | 42% |
| 2025/26 (target) | £35.3m | £46.3m | £30.8m | 60% | 40% |
£78.9m
Total maintenance spend 2024/25
Capital £45.7m + revenue £33.2m
1.82×
Capital spend vs DfT allocation
£45.7m spent against £25.1m allocated
0.83%
Of asset value spent on maintenance
Against £9.47bn estimated GRC (2025)
Preventative vs Reactive — The Honest Split
In 2024/25, Gloucestershire classed 58% of maintenance as preventative and 42% as reactive — including pothole filling and emergency repairs. Just over £7m (23%) of the revenue budget goes to routine maintenance including pothole repairs; a further £6.4m (20%) to winter maintenance and drainage.
The council resurfaced or surface-dressed 121 miles of road in 2024/25, with 576 miles treated over five years. For 2025/26, over 100 miles are programmed.
GREEN spend does not eliminate potholes — it funds a network that still produced 62,131 safety defects last year. Nearly half of maintenance spend is chasing problems after they appear.
200,996 Pothole Repairs in Five Years
The reactive repair volume on a GREEN-rated network
| Year | Potholes filled | Total safety defects | Defects that were potholes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 31,314 | 38,517 | 81% |
| 2021/22 | 38,575 | 46,950 | 82% |
| 2022/23 | 34,978 | 42,334 | 83% |
| 2023/24 | 48,148 | 57,195 | 84% |
| 2024/25 | 47,981 | 62,131 | 77% |
| Five-year total | 200,996 | 247,127 | — |
Find & Fix — preventative patching
Gloucestershire's Find & Fix gangs treat defects before they become safety-category potholes:
- • 2023/24: 27,921 defects treated (part year)
- • 2024/25: 31,358 defects treated (full year)
Even with proactive gangs, recorded safety defects rose 61% from 2020/21 to 2024/25 (38,517 → 62,131).
2025/26 pace — already 8% ahead
"At the end of May 2025 we had fixed 11,378 safety defects in the current financial year which is 8% higher than in the same period in 2024/25."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
"Safety Inspections are designed to identify all defects likely to cause danger, or serious inconvenience to users of the network or the wider community. The risk of danger is assessed on site and the defect identified with an appropriate priority response."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
The AMBER Scorecard And What The Council Admits
Gloucestershire's one non-GREEN DfT mark — and the gaps its own words reveal
Best Practice: AMBER
Gloucestershire publishes a TAMP updated April 2025, benchmarks against 15 statistical neighbours, tracks 12 public KPIs quarterly, and runs FixMyStreet integrated with CONFIRM. Yet the DfT still rated best practice AMBER — the scorecard measuring documented asset management processes, not road condition headlines.
Section 58 defences depend on proving a reasonable maintenance system. AMBER best practice is the official signal that Gloucestershire's evidenced processes have room for improvement — even while condition and spend score GREEN.
Public satisfaction vs survey data
"Condition surveys may not align with public perception of road conditions. For example in the 2024 NHT Public Satisfaction Survey, public satisfaction with the condition of highways in Gloucestershire saw a slight decline, dropping by 2 percentage points compared to the 2023 survey."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
"Since 2011 there has been no national requirement for English highway authorities to survey and report on the condition of their Unclassified Road networks."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
"It is recognised that Climate Change has impacted much of our road network, particularly drainage, infrastructure and geotechnical assets."
— Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report 2025
FixMyStreet — 60% of reports now online
Since launching FixMyStreet in November 2023, over 60% of highways issues are reported online each month — up from 38% before launch. Reports integrate with CONFIRM and subscribers can track progress. For your claim: prior FixMyStreet or council reports of the same defect location are powerful evidence of actual notice, which can defeat a Section 58 defence regardless of network-level GREEN ratings.
Section 58 On A GREEN Council
How Gloucestershire will defend — and where the transparency data helps you
The Legal Framework
Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, Gloucestershire County Council must maintain highways maintainable at public expense. Under Section 58, the council can defend a claim by proving it took such care as was reasonable to ensure the relevant part of the highway was not dangerous.
DfT GREEN ratings are network-level scorecards. They do not decide your case. The court asks: was this specific defect dangerous? Did the council know or ought to have known? Did it respond within its published inspection intervals?
- • On an A-road: expect a strong defence — 86% green-condition, surveyed annually both directions
- • On a B/C road: moderate — 29% in RED or amber, but regular SCANNER surveys
- • On a U-road: your strongest structural argument — 23.7% RED, only 800km surveyed per year, methodology caveats documented by the council itself
What Works In The Council's Favour
- ✓ GREEN condition — classified roads above national average
- ✓ GREEN spend — capital spend 1.8× DfT allocation in 2024/25
- ✓ TAMP, 12 public KPIs, benchmarking against 15 neighbours
- ✓ Find & Fix gangs and 121 miles resurfaced in 2024/25
- ✓ FixMyStreet integration — documented reporting trail
Expect a well-prepared Section 58 bundle. Generic negligence arguments will not work.
What Works In Yours
- ✗ AMBER best practice — documented process gaps at DfT level
- ✗ 23.7% of U-roads in RED — nearly doubled since 2020
- ✗ Only one-third of U-roads condition-surveyed each year
- ✗ 200,996 pothole repairs in five years — defects form between inspections
- ✗ 42% reactive maintenance spend — chasing failures, not preventing them
- ✗ Climate change admission on drainage and geotechnical assets
- ✗ Council's own note that U-road RED data is not nationally comparable
The Winning Strategy Is Specificity
Against a GREEN-rated county council, your claim lives or dies on the specific defect:
- • Prior FixMyStreet or council reports of the same pothole — proof of actual notice
- • Photos showing depth, width and visible age (weathered edges, previous patching)
- • Road class — on a U-road, the partial survey cycle and 23.7% RED rate are structural arguments
- • Whether the defect met Gloucestershire's safety inspection intervention criteria
- • Timeline — how long the defect existed vs the council's published response intervals
Mac builds exactly this case: prior reports searched, photo evidence assessed, and Gloucestershire's own transparency data cited where it helps you — without pretending GREEN means invincible.
What Is Coming in 2025/26
Forward programme from the council's own plans section
Resurfacing programme
- • 101+ miles programmed for resurfacing or surface dressing in 2025/26
- • Additional footway and structure funding in the capital programme
- • PAS 2161 methodology for classified roads from 2026/27 — five-band scoring replaces three-band RED/amber/green
Innovation pipeline
- • Battle of the Potholes trials — thermal repair, spray injection, mobile batched material
- • Expanded AI for road condition surveys and customer responses
- • Graphene surfacing trials to extend road life
- • Heatmaps to target defect hot spots
Hit a Pothole in Gloucestershire?
A GREEN-rated council demands a precise, evidence-led claim. £35 for a professional claim pack.
DIY Claim
- • Submit photos and invoices
- • Use generic template letter
- • No U-road survey-cycle argument
- • No FixMyStreet prior-report search
- • Ignore AMBER best-practice scorecard
Professional Claim Pack
- ✅ 23.7% U-road RED condition documented
- ✅ 200,996 repairs in five years cited
- ✅ AMBER best-practice gap argued honestly
- ✅ Prior FixMyStreet reports searched and attached
- ✅ Section 58 rebuttal tailored to Gloucestershire
No percentage fees. You keep 100% of any compensation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Gloucestershire's GREEN rating mean I cannot claim?
No. GREEN means the council performs above average on network-level DfT scorecards — not that every road is defect-free. Section 58 under the Highways Act 1980 turns on whether the specific defect that damaged your vehicle was reasonably inspected and repaired. Gloucestershire's own data shows 62,131 safety defects recorded in 2024/25 and 23.7% of unclassified roads in RED condition.
Why is Best Practice AMBER if everything else is GREEN?
The DfT scores condition, spend and best practice separately before combining them into an overall rating. Gloucestershire is GREEN on condition and spend but AMBER on best practice — the one scorecard that measures documented processes, asset management evidence and data submission. In a dispute, that is the official assessment that the council's systems have documented room for improvement, even while the network headline looks strong.
What if my pothole was on an unclassified road?
Unclassified roads make up 3,283km — 56% of Gloucestershire's 5,868km network. Only 33% of U-roads are surveyed annually (800km per year on a three-year cycle). RED-condition U-roads have risen from 12% in 2020 to 23.7% in 2024 under the council's Vaisala Road-AI system — roughly 778km of residential and rural routes. The council itself notes these RED figures "were not created using a nationally recognised or comparable data standard" and that pre-2022 figures are not directly comparable.
Does the council spending more than its DfT allocation weaken my claim?
It strengthens their Section 58 defence on aggregate — Gloucestershire spent £45.7m capital against £25.1m DfT allocation in 2024/25. But spend scorecards measure budgets, not your specific defect. The council still recorded 47,981 pothole repairs and 62,131 safety defects in 2024/25, with 42% of maintenance spend classed as reactive. A well-funded council can still miss the pothole that damaged your car.
How does Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 apply here?
Section 41 imposes a duty on Gloucestershire County Council, as highway authority, to maintain adopted highways. Section 58 provides a defence if the council can prove it took such care as was reasonable to secure that the part of the highway in question was not dangerous. Your claim succeeds when you show the defect was dangerous, caused your damage, and the council either knew or ought to have known about it through its inspection regime — regardless of GREEN network ratings.
Data sources: Department for Transport — Local Road Maintenance Ratings 2025 to 2026 | Gloucestershire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report (June 2025). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Reusable evidence record
Council rating evidence and provenance
Rating period: 2025-2026 · Reviewed 19 July 2026
Observed DfT fact
Overall GREEN; condition GREEN; spend GREEN; best practice AMBER.
Cautious interpretation
This is network-level context. The rating does not determine liability for a particular incident or establish what was known about a specific defect.
Correction status: No correction recorded.