Nottinghamshire councillors will examine the latest review of the county’s highways service next week, as a major report setting out how the council intends to maintain and improve its vast £10 billion road, lighting and footway network returns to the spotlight.
The Place Select Committee meets on 8 December to scrutinise the Highways Review, which has been drawn up by a Cabinet working group following a decision earlier this year to revisit how the authority delivers and prioritises road maintenance.
The document stresses that the authority’s network is one of its most valuable public assets, stretching across all seven districts and touching the daily lives of every resident and business that relies on safe, reliable roads, pavements and lighting. The scale is substantial: the county maintains 96,000 streetlights, 369 highway bridges, more than 45,000 highway trees and around 141,000 drainage assets, making the service one of the most complex and costly operations the council manages. Its replacement value is estimated to exceed £10 billion.
To keep this asset functioning, the council currently operates a capital maintenance programme worth more than £52 million a year together with an annual revenue budget of £20 million – funding that covers day-to-day repairs, inspections, drainage work, streetlighting, weed control and general highway upkeep. Although the report states there are no new financial implications attached to this latest review, the background papers the committee will consider include the significant spending levels linked to the wider Cabinet report.
This new review builds on several earlier pieces of work, particularly the comprehensive highways review completed in 2021–22. That earlier programme brought changes to the council’s approach to patching, surface treatments, public reporting methods and neighbourhood-level working, after years in which residents regularly voiced frustrations about potholes, uneven footways and slow response times. Since then the council has invested in new machinery, the ‘Right First Time’ approach to repairs and improved data collection, while the Department for Transport’s national highways funding formula and inflationary pressures have continued to influence what the authority can deliver.
The working group behind the 2025 review was asked to evaluate progress since 2021–22, consider best practice and explore further service improvements. The committee papers acknowledge that while significant progress has been made in stabilising the condition of many local roads in recent years, the challenge of maintaining such a large asset continues to grow as infrastructure ages, traffic volumes increase and drainage systems face the consequences of more intense rainfall.
For residents, the value of this review lies in how the council chooses to prioritise works across neighbourhoods. Every decision about resurfacing, patching, streetlighting replacement or drainage upgrades affects the daily experience of drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and bus passengers. The review also emphasises the importance of cost-effectiveness: with tight budgets and rising construction prices, the council needs to manage maintenance schedules carefully to avoid more expensive reconstruction later.
The report going before councillors notes that no legal or Local Government Reorganisation implications arise directly from this review. Its purpose is to allow the Select Committee to scrutinise the outcomes of the Cabinet report and offer comments before the council proceeds with any future decisions or operational shifts.
Notably, the highways service touches every electoral division in Nottinghamshire, making it one of the most publicly scrutinised areas of county council work. While many residents only encounter the service when reporting potholes or waiting for resurfacing, the review describes a network that is vast, heavily used and expensive to maintain, and stresses that long-term strategic planning is essential.
The Highways Review report attached to the committee papers is the full document councillors will evaluate. It outlines the detailed findings of the Cabinet group and is expected to shape ongoing discussions about the county’s approach to maintenance standards, inspection regimes, investment priorities and the management of its £10bn asset base. Councillors will be invited to comment before any subsequent recommendations return to Cabinet.
The Place Select Committee meets on Monday 8 December, where members are expected to question officers and the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment on the review’s findings and its implications for communities across the county.
