Thank you all for your support, so far Derbyshire and Herefordshire CC both have plans in place to start fully mapping their drainage assets during maintenance and cleaning. Gloucestershire CC was also looking at my proposal as they are also registered for the National Underground Asset Register. 

Interestingly most councils do not seem to have details of how much these unknown drainage assets are damaging our roads, and leading to subsidence. Only one council Oxfordhshire CC was actually looking into reoccuring issues and getting to the route cause. How much of our money is being wasted by councils not understanding their road damage and just patching it and hoping for the best. 

The National Audit commission response on these issues was interesting -

In July this year, we published a report on the condition and maintenance of local roads in England, in which we set out that local authorities are responsible for the management of the local road network under their control. The Department for Transport (DfT) is responsible for providing policy, guidance and funding to local authorities in England to help them run and maintain their road networks. While central government provides funding towards maintenance of the road network, it is for each individual local authority to decide on how best to maintain its roads based on local needs, priorities and funding. As a result, it is not within the remit of the NAO to examine the repair and maintenance of local roads by individual councils.  

However, in our report, we examined whether the DfT has been ensuring value for money through its funding provision for local road maintenance, and whether it has been effectively fulfilling its role in supporting local authorities to deliver local road maintenance. We found that the DfT does not have a good enough understanding of the condition of local roads and does not use the limited data it does have to allocate its funding as effectively as possible. Of particular relevance to your enquiry, we found that:

•       In relation to sharing best practice across local authorities – the DfT had established an incentive mechanism to encourage local authorities to adopt best practice principles, but local government.

Thank you again and ask you county council to raise these issues of mapping and road maintenace please.