Survey undermined by missing road data

Technical officers have vowed to recapture control of England's annual Road Condition Survey from the Department for Transport (DfT) after accusing it of suppressing vital data.

The row has erupted over the 2007 survey, which unlike previous editions did not show trends in local road condition. Councils use this information to lobby for and plan highways maintenance investment.

Information from visual inspections by council engineers was also missing, the County Surveyors Society (CSS) said.

"I am urging highways officers across the country, who collect the data, to take control of the survey, because the government is undermining it by witholding data," CSS engineering committee chair Matthew Lugg said.

"We are planning a technical officer-produced survey, given that the government doesn't seem to see the need for a national survey."

The survey was launched by CSS in 1977 to give robust data on local roads. The DfT later took over publication.

This year's survey gave results for local performance indicators instead of figures showing rates of decline or improvement. Mr Lugg queried why no graphs showing long-term trends had been included in the report. 

He feared that if the survey lost its authority its place could be taken by others "full of anecdotal rubbish", for example from motoring organisations.

Highway conditions improved after heavy extra investment in the early 2000s but the CSS fears this will be lost as slimmer budgets mean roads deteriorate.

Local Government Association senior policy consultant Caroline Green said: "We estimate it would take 11 years to clear the backlog of repairs at the current rate of spending."

The DfT blamed the missing figures on the effects of its incomplete switch from visual data to records collected by a mechanised process called Scanner.

A spokesman said: "An accurate and full national picture of the state of our roads is important to the DfT."