Nearly a quarter of Southend's residential roads are rated red in the council's own survey. Councillors debate a pothole emergency on Monday. Here is the list.

Councillors will be asked on Monday to declare a pothole emergency in Southend. The council’s own figures say the roads people live on are in the worst state of any part of the network.

The motion goes to Full Council on Monday 14 September at 6.30pm (Council agenda, item 22). It is proposed by Cllr Alex Moyies and seconded by Cllr Frankie Bird, and it asks for two things:

  • that the Corporate Performance Plan carries an indicator for carriageway condition including footways, when it is next brought forward
  • that Cabinet weighs the data, the resources, statutory guidance and officer advice in any future proposals

It asks for measurement, in other words, not money.

What the council’s own survey says

The condition figures come from Southend’s Local Highway Maintenance Transparency Report, based on its 2024 survey. Unclassified roads, the residential streets that make up 83% of the network, are the worst:

  • Unclassified roads: 23.82% red, 57.92% amber, 18.26% green
  • B and C roads: 12.65% red, 53.88% amber, 33.47% green
  • A roads: 9.1% red, 48.23% amber, 42.67% green

The motion also states that an independent analysis of Department for Transport road condition data by Re-flow Field Management, reported on 22 September 2025, ranked Southend-on-Sea fifth worst in England, and that the England average for red-category unclassified roads is 17%. Neither figure appears in the council’s own published report, and they are quoted here as the motion’s claim rather than as the council’s.

Stacked bar chart of Southend road condition by class, showing 23.82% of unclassified roads in the red category against 12.65% of B and C roads and 9.1% of A roads
Southend road condition by class, 2024 survey. Source: Southend-on-Sea City Council, Local Highway Maintenance Transparency Report 2025 to 2026.
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The motion puts the case in terms that are not about drivers. “A pothole is an inconvenience to a driver and a serious danger to a cyclist. A broken or sunken pavement is what stops an older resident, or a resident using a wheelchair or a walking frame, leaving their own front door with confidence.”

The roads already on the list

The council has published which roads and pavements are lined up for resurfacing between 2026 and 2029. We counted them: 121 roads and 113 pavements across all 17 wards (proposed pavement and road resurfacing 2026 to 2029).

The programme is not spread evenly.

  • Milton has the most, with 23 roads and 11 pavements listed, including Hamlet Court Road, Clifftown Parade, Chichester Road, Argyll Road and Weston Road.
  • Blenheim Park has 12 roads, among them Prittlewell Chase, Kingsway and Treelawn Drive.
  • Victoria has 12 roads and 9 pavements.
  • St Laurence has a single road on the list, Western Approaches.
  • West Shoebury has four roads and, in the council’s words, “no pavements in West Shoebury ward are due for resurfacing”.

Nine road schemes are named for the first year, 2026 to 2027 (Highways Improvement Programme 2026 to 2027):

  • Woodside, Belfairs, from the junction with The Fairway to outside number 96
  • Hamlet Court Road, Milton, from London Road to Annerley Road
  • Royal Artillery Way, Southchurch, entire road, both carriageways
  • Manners Way, St Laurence, entire road
  • Eastwoodbury Lane, St Laurence, from St Laurence Way to Eastwoodbury Crescent
  • Sutton Road, St Lukes, eastbound from Eastern Avenue to Chandlers Way and Fossetts Way
  • Eastern Avenue, St Lukes, from the railway bridge to Sutton Road
  • Thorpe Hall Avenue, Thorpe, northbound from outside number 265 to Willingale Way
  • A13 London Road, Victoria, from Claremont Road to Cotswold Road

Being on the list is not a date. The council warns that “exact lengths of each road/pavement works may be subject to change” and that the year of delivery will move for deterioration, major utility works, budget changes and other circumstances. Schemes not done in their year roll into the next one.

What the council is spending

The most recent published transparency report covers 2025 to 2026 and sets out:

  • £8m allocated to road and pavement improvement plans, an increase for the second year running
  • 5 miles of carriageway planned for resurfacing
  • 17 schemes covering 10 miles of pavement
  • roughly 2,000 potholes expected to be filled, a figure the council says it expects to exceed

The council also says it now makes permanent repairs to all potholes rather than returning to the same hole, that a new highways maintenance contractor was due to start in April 2026, and that the first of its planned public data dashboards will be about potholes.

On its own performance measures, the repairs are being done on time. In the first quarter of 2026/27 the council reported that 100% of pothole repairs meeting the intervention threshold were completed within 28 days, and that all 947 highway safety inspections were carried out on schedule. The argument on Monday is not about response times. It is about the condition of the network those repairs are being made to.

What it means for you

Check whether your street is on the programme. The council’s directory is searchable by road name or by ward, and it returns results by ward: proposed pavement and road resurfacing 2026 to 2029. If your road is on it, the year is still indicative.

Reporting a defect is not just a complaint, it feeds the selection. The council says the number of reported potholes is one of the factors it weighs when choosing schemes, alongside previous maintenance and, for pavements, the number of trees. Reports go through the council’s report an issue on our roads and pavements form.

Busy does not mean first. The council uses a risk-based approach set by the national code of practice, which favours areas around the hospital, schools and bus routes. It states plainly that it does “not automatically consider roads in the worst condition first”. That is why a bad residential street can sit while a main road is done.

If you want to watch Monday’s debate, the meeting is at the Civic Centre on Victoria Avenue from 6.30pm, and the pothole motion is one of nine notices of motion on the agenda. For what is closed and dug up right now, our Southend roadworks and travel page is updated with the current orders.

Sources