Going the distance - Achieving better value for money in road maintenance looks at the challenges faced by the country's 152 council highways authorities. England's 236,000 miles of local roads - used by 30 million drivers every day - are under attack from increasing traffic, severe winters, higher repair costs, and dwindling highways funding.
The report highlights how councils can get more for their money, including cost-saving collaborations with neighbours, asset management to show when road maintenance will be most effective, new ways of keeping residents informed, and weighing short-term repairs against long-term resilience.
It calls on departments to make better decisions by developing clear and focused asset management plans. They need to have a better inventory and to sharpen procurement through analysing cost variations.
The report also recommends collaborating with others to gain efficiencies, being robist in defending road user compensation calims and working more closely with utility companies to reduce the number of utility openings and to improve reinstatements.
Recommendations are also given for professional bodies and councillors, including that they should set service standards - such as road conditions and response times - that they can afford.
It can be downloaded from www.audit-commission.gov.uk.
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