Hampshire residents’ satisfaction with how the county council maintains the county’s 5,500 miles of highway has improved.

This is following Hampshire County Council's decision to provide additional local funding to try to reduce the impact of the year-on-year reductions in Government funding for local highway maintenance over the past decade.

Hampshire has been rated third out of all 30 English county councils for public satisfaction with highway maintenance and is the highest performing county authority in the South-East region.

Of the 3,300 Hampshire residents who responded to the 2022 National Highways and Transport Survey, 48 per cent agreed that they were satisfied with the highway maintenance service – a one per cent improvement on the figures for 2021 and two per cent higher than the average for all county councils.

Councillor Nick Adams-King, executive member for highways operations at the county council, said: “We know the positive impact that good roads have on people’s quality of life and the part this plays in supporting the local economy. It is pleasing to see that satisfaction levels with Hampshire’s highways are moving in the right direction, and I’m sure that this reflects our commitment to do all that we can, within the resources available, to keep Hampshire roads in serviceable condition.

READ MORE: Santa flies into hospice on a ex-military Gazelle helicopter

“Since 2010 we have sought to bridge the gap between national funding for road maintenance and what we actually need by committing £10 million per annum of county council funding to our planned structural maintenance programme, known as Operation Resilience, but this amount buys less and less each passing year – and even more so currently, due to rapidly rising inflationary pressures.

“In the spring, we recognised that further investment was needed, and the county council agreed that a further £7 million per annum should be allocated for highway maintenance with the aim of setting a long-term plan to restore our roads.”

Cllr Adams-King added: “Looking after Hampshire’s roads remains a key priority for us despite the reduced Government funding, the high cost of inflation on construction work and materials, and pressures on our council budgets owing to rising costs and high demand in areas like social care and waste. Increased Government funding will be vital if we are to ensure the underlying condition of our roads and footways in Hampshire does not decline beyond repair and public satisfaction falls with it. After a mild but wet autumn, the hard freeze over the last couple of weeks will undoubtedly do more damage to relatively fragile road networks, and with record tax receipts from high fuel prices, I hope that the Government will recognise the additional pressures, and increase the planned funding for local road maintenance.”

Since the beginning of 2022, Hampshire Highways has repaired around 41,000 carriageway and footway defects, including potholes, and cleared nearly 39,000 gullies and other highway drainage assets to reduce the risk of flooding.