Highways

The City Council is the Highway Authority for Plymouth. Highway includes the publicly adopted roads and footpaths within the city boundary. The majority of roads and paths are covered by highway maintenance but some are privately owned or are maintained by other council departments.

Our main areas of work on the highway include:

• gully cleaning
• roads and pavements
• manhole covers and potholes
• traffic signs and road markings
• fencing and barriers
• winter road maintenance

The council is responsible for carrying out repairs and for administering highway legislation via the Highways Act 1980 and the NRSWA (New Roads and Street Works Act) 1991. This includes:

• planned maintenance: resurfacing and renewal of road markings
• reactive maintenance: dealing with minor defects including potholes or other dangerous damage
• highway drainage: clearing blocked highway gullies and drainage channels
• obstructions: enforcement of highway legislation contained in the Highways Act 1980
• licensing: granting of permissions for use of areas of highway (eg scaffold, hoardings, road opening permits, events on the highway)
• surveys: carrying out of visual and machine condition surveys of the highway network
• street works: liaison with various utilities organisations (eg gas, electric, water, telecoms) or other authorised bodies carrying out work within the highway. Enforcement under the NRSWA 1991

Verges

Many of the grass verges adjacent to roads in Plymouth are within the public highway. Plymouth City Council is responsible for keeping these areas safe. In the event of an obstruction on the verges, for example, parked vehicles, please contact the police on 08452 777444.

Report it

Report any highway defects or misuse of the highway as soon as noticed. Use our highway problems online form to report problems affecting the highways.