Survey shows increasing satisfaction with Shropshire’s roads

Resurfacing work on the A41 in July 2022

Shropshire residents are increasingly satisfied with the condition of the county’s roads, and the work carried out by Shropshire Council to repair and improve them, according to the results of a national annual survey.

The National Highways and Transport (NHT) Public Satisfaction Survey 2022 found that public satisfaction with the way Shropshire Council deals with potholes rose by seven percentage points last year, with a six point increase in satisfaction with the condition of the county’s road surfaces.

There was also a seven percentage point increase in satisfaction with the condition of the county’s roads generally. Respondents also indicated that they felt that the council was doing more to repair local roads compared to a year ago.

Each year the NHT survey asks a random sample of at least 3300 residents in 111 council areas for their views on highways and transport services in their area. Responses enable each council to know what local people think about their services – and the results are also compared with the views of people across England and Scotland.

Richard Marshall, Cabinet member for highways (pictured), said:

“We welcome the findings of this year’s NHT survey, which provide evidence that a new approach to how Shropshire Council maintains its highways, that was introduced last year, is already having an impact.

“We needed to take a bold new approach to the challenges the network was presenting us with, and this is providing greater value for money and has allowed us to deliver more work on the ground.

“This is clearly being seen, as there have been some significant ‘shifts’ in public opinion, especially on potholes and road condition.

”We know that there is still much to be done, and more room for improvement, but these findings clearly show increased satisfaction with the work we doing to improve the county’s roads, which is very positive.

“I want to say a big thank to you our highways teams and our contractors for their hard work that has helped to achieve these results.”

This year 1,044 members of the Shropshire public responded to the survey. This represented an overall response rate for Shropshire of 31.6%, compared with the national average of 22.8%.

Further information

For the survey Shropshire sits within the ‘County Council peer group’ of 30 councils.

In this year’s survey, there was also a six percentage point increase in how informed people feel about action to repair local roads. This made Shropshire Council the biggest improver in its peer group, with the council scoring one point more than the peer group average.