Highways Maintenance Transparency Report

The road network within the Peterborough City Council authority area totals 1,015 km of roads. This includes 41km that is managed by National Highways: the A1, and the A47 from the eastern authority boundary to the junction with the A1 at Wansford (the remainder of the A47 to the west is managed by Peterborough Highway Services). Peterborough Highway Services then manage the remaining 974 km of the road network. There is almost a 50/50 split between urban and rural roads.

Peterborough benefits from a dual-carriageway parkway system that quickly moves traffic around the city. This is managed by Peterborough City Council except for the A47 (Soke Parkway) which is maintained by National Highways.

[road lengths: Statistical data set Road length statistics (RDL) page on GOV.UK website]

The Peterborough highway network also includes footways, cycleways, signs, safety barriers, street lighting, bridges and structures, drainage, traffic signals.

• Carriageways – total length 974 km
• Footways and cycleways (including shared use) – total length 1,046 km
• Bridges and Structures – 433 (of which 295 are larger inspected structures)
• Streetlights – 25,188
• Traffic Signals – 132 sets
• Drainage Gullies - 46,795
• Total number of highways assets recorded (including road sections, footway/cycleway sections, streetlights, bridges/structures, traffic signals, gullies, signs, nameplates, bollards, safety barrier, public right of way sections, speed bumps, pedestrian guardrail, street furniture, anti-skid) – 130,244

The key challenges for maintaining the Peterborough highway network are:

Parkway Network – high speed dual carriageway network with high traffic volumes limits maintenance to night working only, crucial to the economy of the city but expensive to maintain (in one place there are 4 lanes in each direction).

Bridges – most parkway junctions include slip roads and bridges, which whilst efficient for traffic are costly for maintenance. There are also several bridges over the railway east coast mainline, which drastically limits working time and increases cost.

Rural Fen Roads – these are mainly in the north-east of the authority and are built on peat soils, often with drains each side. These suffer weather related damage with cracking, undulations, and subsidence. Full resurfacing or insitu-recycling sometimes only lasts 1-2 years before further work is required. Total reconstruction with piling of the ditches is unsustainable with the available funding.

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.

A roads

B and C roads

U roads

Additional information on carriageway condition

The A roads within Peterborough are kept in good condition because the majority are national speed limit dual carriageways. It is therefore important from a safety perspective for these to be in good condition.

To improve the condition of the Unclassified road network the council funded £2m of work during the financial year 2024/25 specifically targeting these. The works included a mixture of surface treatments, recycling, and resurfacing. If there is an improvement of condition from this it should be demonstrated in the 2026 road condition statistics.

The A, B and C roads were assessed using a Scanner machine. The unclassified road network was assessed using a Course Visual Inspection (CVI).

What is a pothole?

Peterborough City Council defines a pothole as being greater than 150mm across in all horizontal directions and 40mm or greater in depth. Our response depends upon the depth of the pothole and the hierarchy of road that it is on.

The most common cause of potholes in the UK is the freeze-thaw cycle. When rainwater seeps into cracks and freezes, it expands, pushing stones apart and weakening the surface layer. Furthermore, the bitumen becomes brittle and snaps at cold temperatures. As vehicles pass over the weakened area, the material breaks away and a pothole begins to form.

While freeze-thaw is the main culprit other factors such as excessive heat cause initial cracking to roads which then develops further with vehicle wear. In Peterborough there are Fen Roads which also suffer from ground movement due to dry or wet weather affecting the peat base. This causes cracking, subsidence, and undulations. Any damage to the road surface creating an edge for wheel damage or a void for water penetration can result in potholes.

What we are doing to tackle potholes

During 2025/26 Peterborough Highway Services repaired 4,347 potholes. These were repaired using a combination of:

• Make safe fill
• Cut and patch
• Resurface
• Roadmaster velocity patcher (“dragon patcher”)

During 2025/26 there was a greater number of make safe style repairs due to the volume of potholes between January and March. The number of potholes in these months was over 3 times the volume of the same period in the previous year. These volumes created an imbalance where less permanent repairs were being carried out than would be ideal. As a result, in June the partnership started a review to refocus on more permanent cut and patch repairs.

As such the focus is now that permanent repairs with no re-visit required is the preference. There are still reasons for a quicker make safe repair:

• Risk – location, high speed road, timings, clash with other works, on a diversion route
• Safety – for the public with dangerous defect that needs an urgent make safe, operatives where the location is difficult to work safely without positive traffic management
• Programme Management – sheer volume of defects in a short space of time as seen in Jan-Mar 2026

Peterborough Highways focusses on prevention of potholes through the annual capital maintenance programme. This is achieved through a programme of:

• Surface treatments
• Retexturing
• Retread
• Insitu recycling
• Resurfacing (large sections of roads, junctions, areas of heavy use/wear)

The full lifecycle of the carriageway is considered when formulating the annual capital programme. This is detailed within the Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (HIAMP). The use of surface treatments to seal the road surface of carriageways in reasonable condition is a key priority that is used each year to help to prevent potholes. This also provides both financial and carbon reduction benefits.

How members of public can report potholes and other highway defects

The public can report potholes and all highway defects using the Peterborough City Council fault reporter, in conjunction with Fix My Street (FMS). To report a pothole or highway defect, visit our report a problem website.

They can also phone the customer service centre (01733 747474) or email them (ask@peterborough.gov.uk). In these eventualities the customer service staff then log the reports onto report.peterborough (FMS) for them.

All of these online reports then transfer automatically to the Confirm Highways system, and the customer receives an email confirmation.

What happens after a pothole is reported

Once reports are logged on Fix My Street they transfer into Confirm and providing all the location information and subjects are correct, they will automatically be allocated to the correct highways’ inspector based upon the location. The highways inspector then has that enquiry allocated to them on their iPad. They then visit the location and if a repair is required then they raise a defect which automatically creates a job for the work to be completed, the customer is then updated with an expected timescale by email. The work is then programmed for a work crew to visit and they complete the job. Once the job has been updated to completed then the customer receives an email update to notify them. This email includes a link to a survey that provides the customer with the opportunity to provide feedback on the service that they have received and the standard of the repair.

Spending on highways maintenance

Where our funding for highways maintenance comes from