Read our Guide to Highways Safety Inspections
Our decision making process
As the Highways Authority for Milton Keynes, MKCC is responsible for maintain the public highway. We carry out regular inspections of our assets including over 1,550 km of highway, 350 km of redway, over 600 bridges, 75,000 gullies, 58,000 streetlights and illuminated items plus over 130 roundabouts.
The number of assets we look after is growing all the time with new development areas and adoptions of roads and footways. Each year our highway network increases by 10 to 12 km as we adopt new highway from developed areas.
Like all local authorities, we have limited budgets so we have to prioritise what work we can do to fix immediate safety issues whilst also looking at how we can maintain our assets for longer so we don't have to keep making regular, minor repairs.
Once a highways issue has been reported to us, we'll look at the details and if necessary, carry out an inspection and assess if it meets our minimum requirements. If it does, it'll be recorded as a defect.
Read our guide on how to report an issue to highways so we can process your enquiry quickly.
Each year we put together a programme covering the different areas of highways to repair defects and to coordinate as many road closures, resources and materials as we can to make the budget go as far as possible.
'Making Safe'
If a defect is considered to be a high risk safety issue, we will carry out emergency repairs or will close off an area for safety and plan the necessary works as soon as possible.
For example, if a pothole in the road is considered to be a hazard to road users, we may do a temporary fill to make it safe and then return within a few weeks to carry out a permanent repair.
Not all assets on the highway are ours, some belong to utility companies or are privately owned. The owner should be contacted if their asset is damaged but sometimes if there is a risk to public safety, we will make the area safe and then notify to asset owner to fix the problem by issuing them with a Section 81 notice.
Facts and Figures
Road defect repair statistics (including potholes)
Codes of Practice
- Highways Safety Inspections - Codes of Practice
- Street lighting maintenance
- Seasonal lighting
- Application to install seasonal decorations on the highway
Policies
- Temporary events and signs
- Permanent direction signing
- Skid resistance strategy and operational guidance