Highways magazine has raised some concerns from within the local authority sector about the data on which the Department for Transport has based its red, amber, green (RAG) ratings of English local authorities when it comes to filling potholes highway maintenance.
The gist of the story seems to be both that some councils have wrongly been rated red and others undeservedly rated as green.
The twist in the tale, as I mentioned yesterday, is that councils with a red rating, deserved or not, will get extra cash.
As transport secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs yesterday, the ratings are based on three underlying scorecards,
measuring local road condition, the level of capital spend on highways maintenance and the extent to which local authorities have adopted best practice in highways management.
Highways mainly focuses on complications over capital spend, with suggestions that data is not consistent, either because the DfT has not explained the nuances very well, or councils have got the wrong end of the stick, or both:
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Transport Insights 