Hampshire County Council is once again taking part in the annual public satisfaction survey carried out by the National Highways and Transport Network (NHT). It has taken part in this national survey since it began in 2008 – last year 111 UK highway authorities took part.
The primary focus of the survey is to ask Hampshire residents for their views on the County Council’s range of highways and transport services, and in particular the condition of our roads and the quality of the service provided to maintain them. It also covers other related activities such as facilities for cyclists, the quality of public transport and how third-party utility works are managed on the public highway network.
This year’s survey is now open and runs until 30 September. The results, when published, will provide key intelligence and benchmarks on how Hampshire is performing against peer authorities, what the priorities are for residents, and areas to focus on for improvement. Hampshire residents are being asked to complete the survey via the County Council’s website (National Transport and Highways Survey 2022 | Hampshire County Council (hants.gov.uk) ).
You may be aware that Hampshire Highways looks after 5,500 miles of road and 4,285 miles of footway. On top of annual grant settlements from Government for structural highway maintenance the County Council invests an additional £10 million every year towards planned structural maintenance – known as Operation Resilience. This established programme compliments day-to-day routine maintenance activity and helps to make Hampshire roads more resilient against the impacts of extreme weather, climate change and increasing traffic volumes. Recognising the longstanding under-investment in local roads by successive governments, from 2022/23 the County Council is investing an additional £7 million in highway maintenance annually and a long-term Network Recovery Strategy has been developed to set clear objectives for using this County Council funding in the most effective way.
Since the beginning of 2022 Hampshire Highways has repaired around 40,000 carriageway defects (including potholes) and cleared over 39,000 gullies and other drainage infrastructure to reduce the risk of flooding on the highway. Additionally, during Storm Eunice in February, HCC took over 2,500 individual calls and emails, dealt with 1,485 enquiries of which 1,081 were tree/vegetation related and completed 463 emergency jobs.
