Government says our roads are improving

• Carriageway defects down
• Rural roads however haven't improved
• Rival report claims roads are deteriorating

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The condition of UK roads has continued to improve, according to a new survey by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The 2006 National Road Maintenance Condition Survey (NRMCS) reports the number of carriageway defects on roads controlled by councils (90% of the total network) has continued to fall following improvements made in 2005, albeit at a slower rate.

Not all roads show strong improvement, however. Rural routes, which account for almost half of the network at 83,000 miles, have barely improved.

The NRMCS study paints a very different picture to the recent survey of local authority highways engineers by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA). The survey by the AIA says that councils believe the number of defects has, on average, increased by 62% over the past 10 years.

The NRMCS survey also can't identify how many principal trunk roads require close monitoring of their structural condition because of problems with the data it has received. Although the DfT says these roads don't necessarily pose a safety risk, the proportion of trunk roads put on this register for close monitoring increased markedly in 2005.