Suffolk County Council has called on the Department for Transport to correct a report it says wrongly labels the authority in the worst category of a new ratings system.
The move comes after a meeting with department officials (DfT) on Monday by Councillor Paul West and senior highways officials.
The new system ranks highways authorities using a traffic-light system based on effectiveness in spending the government's highways maintenance funding.
The council says the DfT failed to include in its assessment £10 million of highways funding it brought forward from 2025/26 and invested early in 2024/25.
Had this been included, Suffolk would have received an Amber rating for highways expenditure, consistent with its ratings in road condition and best practice, rather than an overall Red.
Councillor West, Suffolk County Council Cabinet Member for Operational Highways, said: “That £10 million delivered much welcomed resurfacing ahead of time, but we have now been unfairly penalised for it.
“We fully support transparency in the reporting of highway maintenance performance but transparency can only be meaningful if the data being published is accurate.
“We have demonstrated to the government where it has gone wrong and we want it to recognise its mistake and correct the rating to Amber.
“Make no mistake, we ultimately want a Green status, but it is important that we at least have a ranking that accurately records where we are.”
Andrew Cook, Executive Director of Growth, Highways and Infrastructure for Suffolk County Council, said the council was unhappy it was not given the chance to comment on the ratings and accompanying report before it was published by the DfT, and that a request to delay publication to do this had been rejected.
“Other government departments routinely undertake proper due diligence before publishing assessments of this nature,” he said.
“We feel it is unacceptable that this standard was not met on this occasion.”
“Other highways authorities have also voiced concerns about the accuracy of the ratings and there is growing consensus across the highway industry that the DfT mechanism is fundamentally flawed.”
Suffolk Highways continues to perform strongly against national road‑condition benchmarks.
In December it was awarded £2.9 million from the Department for Transport’s 2025/26 Incentive Fund.
The fund, introduced by the current government, rewards local authorities that demonstrate excellence in highway asset management and efficiency.
Data published on the Department for Transport (DfT) website shows only 3% of Suffolk’s A‑road network is in poor condition, better than the England average, with the proportion in good condition broadly aligned to the national figure.
Suffolk’s B and C roads also outperform national averages, with a high share in good condition and significantly fewer in poor condition.
The DfT‑reported data also shows that the overall condition of Suffolk’s entire road network has consistently improved since 2011 across all road categories.
Angela Jones, President of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport, has said the newly published ratings raise significant questions about the assessment methodology and has called for local authorities to have the opportunity to verify data and clarify any factual questions before ratings are published, to ensure accuracy and build confidence in the system.
Her full statement can be read here: ADEPT's response to government pothole ratings map | ADEPT
