Latest figures show 'real improvement' on rural roads in county

A massive 57 miles of Lincolnshire’s most rural roads have been lifted out of the ‘needing maintenance’ category.

Particularly difficult to work on due to their narrow width and ditches either side, these roads are known as ‘unclassified’ because they have usually developed from old farm tracks - instead of being specifically built, more mainstream routes like A, B and C roads.

Because of their organic development, unclassified roads tend to be more prone to potholes and edging issues as the historic softer underpinnings give way to modern, heavy farm traffic.

As part of its ongoing county-wide roads strategy to continuously better the traffic network, LCC Highways has ramped up the focus on unclassified roads, and the latest figures show a big improvement for the lesser roads.

Coun Richard Davies, executive member for highways said: “These latest figures are very encouraging and underline that our strategy for roads across the whole of the county is really working.

“Accelerating the improvement on the Unclassified Road network has been a major part of our plans, and we can now show that our efforts are making real headway.

“These lesser roads are usually difficult to work on because the underpinning is just earth and old farm tracks piled on top of each other for, sometimes, hundreds of years before a top layer was eventually added. The roads are susceptible to movement, they are narrow, need to be kept open for farm access, and can have the thin surface material torn off by very heavy vehicles going about their rightful business.

“All of those factors can make working on them tricky, but we are committed to doing that difficult work for everyone across the county.

“We have seen a 2.3 per cent improvement in the Unclassified Road network in the last year alone, which means 57 miles of the most rural roads are now not needing maintenance.

“We know we have more to do, and we are working extremely hard to continue the improvement. We’re seeing real change and that is set to continue.”

- For the percentage of main roads ‘where maintenance should be considered’ Lincolnshire was joint second best in the UK. Just two per cent of the county’s roads were in need of maintenance compared to other rural largely areas like: Cumbria (four per cent), Norfolk (four per cent), Warwickshire (four per cent) and Worcestershire (five per cent).

- For the percentage of non-principal roads ‘where maintenance should be considered’ Lincolnshire was mid-table with six per cent of the total road number, equal to Norfolk and less than: Cambridgeshire (seven per cent), North Lincolnshire (eight per cent) and Cumbria (10 per cent).

- For the percentage of unclassified roads ‘where maintenance should be considered’ Lincolnshire was mid-table with 28 per cent compared to North Yorkshire with 20 per cent, Suffolk with 23 per cent and Cambridgeshire with 33 per cent.