Sandwell Council’s Cabinet has agreed to invest an extra £1.5million to help maintain roads and footpaths, building on the authority’s top national Green rating for highway maintenance.
This boost means the council will invest more than £14million in total over the next year on keeping Sandwell’s roads, footpaths and street lights well maintained.
The additional £1.5million – approved by the council’s Cabinet last month – will specifically support maintaining local residential roads as well as footpaths in neighbourhoods and town centre shopping areas.
Sandwell has recently celebrated a Green rating under the government’s new national traffic light system for highway maintenance. This top assessment recognises strong performance, long-term investment and best practice in road upkeep.
Sandwell ranks fourth out of 154 Local Highway Authorities (LHAs) nationally, of which only 16 were rated Green; and is the top-rated LHA in the West Midlands.
National Pothole Day in January was marked by a visit from Simon Lightwood MP, the Roads Minister from the Department of Transport, who saw Sandwell’s innovative Multihog road repair machine in action.
The government’s ratings – the first of their kind – grade authorities as Red, Amber or Green, based on current road conditions and how effectively they are spending government funding to fix potholes and invest in long-term maintenance.
Sandwell’s Green rating is in line with the annual National Highways and Transport (NHT) survey, where Sandwell ranks among the top four councils nationally for highway condition and pothole prevention. In addition to the NHT survey, the council undertakes an annual resident’s survey, which shows resident satisfaction with road maintenance in Sandwell is more than double the national local government benchmark.
Other key national rankings for Sandwell include:
4th for quality of road repairs
7th for number of potholes
8th for condition of road markings
Within the West Midlands, Sandwell ranks best for five separate highway maintenance measures, demonstrating consistently strong performance across the borough.
The council prioritises prevention over cure, sealing cracks early, applying protective surface treatments and using a proactive maintenance programme to extend road life. Investment in specialist machinery like the Multihog enables faster, higher-quality repairs, ensuring potholes are fixed right first time and reducing disruption for road users.
Councillor Keith Allcock, Sandwell Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Highways, said: “Well-maintained roads and footpaths are vital for people’s safety and to connect them to jobs, education and services.
“We are proud of the national recognition we have received for the condition of our roads, our planned approach to prevent potholes from forming and, in cases where potholes do appear – for example following wintry weather, the speed, quality and reliability of our repairs.
“We are pleased to be able to invest a further £1.5million over the coming year to give some extra focus to our local residential roads and footpaths in our neighbourhoods and town centres. This shows we are a caring council that gets things done on the issues that matter most to our residents.”
Investment in Sandwell’s highway maintenance comes from a mixture of council and Department for Transport funding.
Councillor Allcock added: “This winter has seen a significant increase in rainfall across England, with over 42% above average rainfall (Met Office provisional statistics). The Midlands has seen particularly persistent rainfall, and this has resulted in a sharp rise in reported potholes.
“Our Highways Team are working hard to rectify these as quickly as possible. It may be that some of these pothole repairs may not look as tidy as usual because we have applied temporary patches in order to keep roads safe pending more comprehensive resurfacing works later in the spring.”
If you see a pothole in Sandwell, please report it online or by calling 0121 368 1177, and the council will get it inspected and fixed as soon as possible.