This is how much it would cost to repair potholes in Calderdale - millions would be needed to fully repair roads

The former are the ones which councils including Calderdale have maintenance targets to meet.

In 2023-24, it has just over £13 million to tackle its programme of works, data helping prepare a “long list” of work which needs doing.

Calderdale Council’s performance indicators for ‘A’ roads requires it to remain within a five per cent target – agreed by all West Yorkshire councils – for “urgent maintenance required to principal roads”, and this is currently with that at two per cent.

However, underlying data shows a deterioration rate of the classified network – ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ roads – with six per cent rated as “red”, needing most urgent work, but 33 per cent rated as “amber”.

The target for the unclassified roads is 10 per cent but in order to reduce this figure from the current 18 per cent, significant investment would be required.

Based on current condition data for red and amber ratings, the backlog of maintenance work on both classified and unclassified roads is estimated to be £28 million and £248 million respectively, report senior officers.

Further work is required to develop a fully costed asset management plan, which will be commissioned in the coming year and will also explore emerging technology and innovation for delivering the council’s maintenance work, they say.

The highway network is the council’s biggest single asset and if it were all fully replaced would cost approximately £3.65 billion excluding land costs to do so.

In all, the council is is responsible for maintaining 1,300km of roads (more than 800 miles), 1,100km of footways and 1,400km of public rights of way.

The network contains 39,000 gullies, 283 highway bridges, 730km of walls, 31,000 street lights and 20,000 street signs.

In 2023-24, the council has £13.27 million to spend on highways upkeep, split between £5.56 million revenue – day-to-day costs such as cleaning gullies – and £7.71 million capital – usually planned projects, often from funding pots for specific purposes.