The Council understand how important properly maintained roads are for our communities and are committed to maintaining them to a safe standard.

This is why the Council inspect roads regularly and look to action all customer reported defects as soon as possible. Over the winter period the Council have faced a substantial increase in the number of customer reported defects and are currently identifying and delivering over 2000 pothole repairs a week with over 30 crews out on the network working to address these issues.

Longer term, the Council assess the condition of all our roads annually, via a driven road network condition survey, this then prioritises where the Council invest in planned maintenance countywide. Unfortunately, the Council operate under financial constraints and receive a finite amount of funding from government to use each year for road maintenance. Whilst the Council have supplemented this with a further £20m of our own funding, the Council still require £800m to bring all our roads countywide up to the required standard.

A significant proportion of the road network in Huntingdonshire, Fenland, and East Cambridgeshire forms part of our soil affected road network. 40% of our entire road network, some 1840km, are soil affected. Roads which are soil affected can deteriorate faster and are more susceptible to changes in weather. For instance, the recent dry summer followed by the wetter autumn and colder winter have caused the underlying soil to expand and contract creating those defects you see on the surface of the road. This is over and above what the Council have seen in recent years and presents a significant additional maintenance liability to the council that many other authorities don’t have.

In Fenland district area 93% of the entire road network is classed as soil affected and the Council know that to repair a 1km section of soil affected road it is going to cost £750,000, compared to £200,000 to get the same result on a non-soil affected route. This is because instead of just renewing the road surface the Council need to go deeper and reconstruct the road. You can find out more about how the Council are trying to address this issue here Soil affected roads innovation trial | Cambridgeshire County Council. £2.5m has been ringfenced to repair soil affected roads countywide this year and further information can be found here Capital maintenance programme | Cambridgeshire County Council on the wider 2026 / 27 capital programme and how it has been prioritised.

Recently the Council have budgeted £8.4m towards road maintenance in Fenland and have completed key schemes including Ramnoth Road Wisbech, Coates Road, Coates, Sixteen Foot Bank Chatteris, and City Road March through the capital programme. You can see the remainder of the road investment programme here Road improvements | Cambridgeshire County Council.

In addition to the capital investment outlined above, the Council inspect all our roads at set intervals depending on how they have been categorised and will address any safety defects as these are identified. This means that all roads will be subject to a bi-annual, annual, quarterly, or monthly inspection by our Highway Maintenance Team.

Some roads may be assessed at intervals shorter than monthly if the Council consider this necessary and will implement measures such as additional signage, reduced speed limits, or lane closures to ensure road users can safely use a route.

During an inspection, officers will identify and order any work which meets our investigatory levels. More information on these investigatory levels can be found here How long does it take to fix a road fault | Cambridgeshire County Council. This approach is aligned to national guidance and ensures there is a prioritised approach to Highway Maintenance with more heavily trafficked routes being inspected more often.

The Council also rely on our communities to report defects to us and aim to inspect within ten working days. This local intelligence, provided by our residents, is important to us, especially for roads that are inspected less often. Reports can be submitted via our website here Report a highways fault | Cambridgeshire County Council.

The Council will shortly be starting our road condition survey programme and will assess the whole of our road network again to help inform how funding is allocated for 2027 / 28 financial year. This will be presented to the Highways & Transport Committee later in the year for review and approval.

In the meantime, the Council will continue to maintain our roads through regular proactive safety inspections and responding reactively to reports received regarding potential defects in line with our published policies and procedures where they haven’t currently been identified for capital investment.

Where individuals would like to make a claim for damage caused to their vehicles more information can be found here Making a highways claim | Cambridgeshire County Council.