County Council responds to new highways rating
Lancashire County Council has responded to the new Local Highway Maintenance Ratings published by the Department for Transport on Sunday 11 January 2026.
The new 'traffic light' ratings system, under which Lancashire has been rated amber, is linked to a portion of the funding councils receive for road maintenance based on road condition, the level of local investment, and following the DFT's recommended best practice.
Lancashire County Combined Authority will receive £195,335,000 in baseline funding over the next four years, and is also eligible to receive £72,699,000 in incentive funding, the portion of funding linked to the traffic light rating.
The 5-year period assessed covers different political administrations including 1 month of the current administration.
County Councillor Warren Goldsworthy, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "Lancashire residents deserve roads that are safe, reliable, and repaired properly the first time.
"We've made great progress in improving Lancashire's roads, with our new streamlined maintenance contract with a single provider helping to reduce the number of defects by 42% to 35,000 in September 2025 compared with over 61,000 in September 2024.
"This began in June 2025, so only covers a fraction of the five years which has been assessed for our new rating. Our administration was only elected to office this year and is not responsible for past investment decisions or ways of working.
"This new approach to maintenance we've introduced is also delivering an average 6m² repair for every defect compared to an average of 2m² in 2024. The repairs are high quality and guaranteed for 12 months, removing the need for return visits.
"This increased efficiency has bought the average repair cost down from £200 per m2 to less than £100, a more than 50% saving we can reinvest in improving our roads.
"We're also innovating to make our service more efficient, with AI‑driven inspections being piloted across the A‑road network to identify safety defects, and new techniques which ensures that repairs last longer and cost less.
"We want to bring in as much investment as we possibly can to improve our roads and will be working hard to ensure we're performing strongly in all areas, and can provide the evidence of this to the DFT ahead of our next assessment."
Lancashire County Council was rated Amber on Road condition, Green on capital spend, and Amber on best practice, giving an overall rating of Amber.