West Midlands councils ranked best to worst for fixing potholes by the Department for Transport - see where your local authority ranks

The Department for Transport has issued rankings for councils fixing potholes across England. Here’s how Black Country, Birmingham and Staffordshire and Shropshire Councils are ranked - from best to worst

Potholes are affecting motorists across the West Midlands with huge swathes of our roads covered in crater-like depressions of differing sizes.

The winter weather can often exacerbate the number of potholes cropping up across routes whether they are A roads, Band C roads, U roads, footways and other public rights of way.

Now the Department for Transport has issued a new traffic rating system by which the public can see at a glance how their local council is managing the maintenance of potholes on roads near you.

The ratings range from green (highest) through amber to red (lowest). They measure how well each local highway authority is maintaining its local roads and are based on 3 areas:

the current condition of local roads
how much each local highway authority is spending on maintaining its local roads
how effectively each local highway authority follows best practice in highways maintenance - for example by using technologies to fix and prevent potholes more efficiently

The ratings are supported by 3 scorecards that measure local highway authorities’ performance in each of these 3 areas.

The ratings are based on data from official statistics and data from the transparency reports that local highway authorities had to publish on their websites. Links to each local highway authority’s transparency report are provided in the table below.

Local authorities with good local road condition, high adoption of best practice, and that invest significantly into maintaining their roads receive a green rating, while those where performance is more mixed or consistently weaker across these areas receive an amber or red rating.

2025 to 2026 ratings across England