Bedford & Kempston MP Mohammad Yasin has called for urgent action from Bedford Borough Council after the authority was given a ‘red’ rating for pothole performance and asked the government for up to £55 million in exceptional financial support.
In a letter to Mayor Tom Wootton, the Labour MP said the council’s handling of road maintenance was ‘far short’ of what residents should expect and urged the Conservative administration to accept new government-funded support to improve its performance.
Bedford among worst for potholes.
Read: Bedford among 13 worst authorities for fixing potholes
The Department for Transport’s first national ‘traffic light’ system for local highway authorities placed Bedford Borough Council in the lowest ‘red’ category, based on its road condition, spending on maintenance and how closely it follows best practice.
Red-rated councils are judged not to be meeting expected standards in one or more areas, such as current road condition, preventative maintenance plans or wider investment in local roads.
They will be offered targeted expert support, and their future funding allocations will be linked to improvement.
According to DfT data, Bedford received an amber rating for overall road condition but a red rating for highway maintenance spending, resulting in a red overall score.
In a Facebook post last night (12 January), Mr Yasin said the rating showed Bedford was ‘among the 13 lowest-ranking local authorities’ on potholes.
He warned that local motorists were ‘being forced to endure unacceptable conditions’ on the Borough’s roads despite what he described as ‘record’ national funding for maintenance.
Government money on the table
In his letter to the mayor, Mr Yasin highlighted the government’s new £7.3 billion multi-year national funding pot for local roads.
He highlighted that Bedford Borough had been allocated £31,849,000 between 2026/27 and 2029/30, including baseline and incentive funding, to ‘end the plague of potholes in our area’.
He wrote, ‘Funding alone cannot fix a lack of competence and management. I am disappointed to see that Bedford Borough Council’s Local Highway Authority has been given a red rating for its pothole performance.
‘While the government is doing its part, my constituents are currently being forced to endure unacceptable conditions on the roads managed by your council.
‘Under your administration, our local infrastructure is being allowed to degrade due to a failure of strategic planning and execution.”
Mr Yasin urged the mayor to accept government-funded ‘capability and planning support’, including peer reviews from experienced professionals who can share best practices and technical expertise.
He said he would be ‘monitoring the council’s use of these funds closely”.
“Roads are improving”
The council, however, insists that its own surveys show road conditions improving since the current administration took office in May 2023, particularly on the 60 per cent of the network made up of unclassified residential roads.
Portfolio holder for finance, cllr Marc Frost (Wixams, Conservative), told the area’s local democracy reporter that the new administration had inherited “prolonged underinvestment” with “over 38 per cent of unclassified roads in the worst condition category” in 2023.
“Since then, delivery has materially accelerated,” he said, “Council condition surveys show that the proportion of unclassified roads in the red category has reduced from 38 per cent to 18 per cent in under two years.
That is a measurable structural improvement in the network and clear evidence that our programme is working.”
The council estimates it filled 6,308 potholes in 2024/25, up from 6,032 in 2023/24 and 3,841 in 2022/23.
Cllr Frost said the council had switched to more “planned preventative resurfacing” to fix defects permanently rather than repeatedly patching the same locations and argued that the single-word red label “doesn’t tell the full story”.
“That’s why we do not accept the single-word red label from the DfT,” he said, adding that officers were challenging the department for “further clarity”.
“Bedford is improving, but councils are still being expected to meet growing statutory pressures while managing tight and uncertain funding.
“If government wants faster, sustained progress on potholes, it must back that ambition with a long-term highways settlement that reflects real-world costs and demand.”
From ‘best roads in the country’ to a red rating
The new rating comes less than two years after a national analysis suggested Bedford had some of the best-maintained roads in England.
Read: “How bad must the other roads be?” report says Bedford has some of the best roads in the country
In 2023, a report by comparison site Comparethemarket, based on Department for Transport Road Condition Indicator data, concluded that 86 per cent of roads in Bedford were in “good” condition, placing the borough fifth out of 63 authorities included in the study.
At the time, then mayor Dave Hodgson (Liberal Democrats) welcomed the findings as recognition of work by the council’s highways teams.
But other councillors and some residents questioned whether the picture matched everyday experience on residential streets and key routes.
The council’s own road condition report in 2023, cited in that earlier story, showed only limited improvement on A, B and C roads since 2009 and a sharp deterioration on unclassified roads, with the proportion needing repair rising from 4 per cent to 24 per cent over the same period.
Opposition councillor Jim Weir (Great Denham, Conservative), who was then shadow portfolio holder for environment, highways and transport, and is now Deputy Mayor, highlighted multiple examples of locals complaining about persistent problems “since 2014”.
The contrast between the upbeat 2023 national ranking and the latest red rating from the DfT is now feeding into a wider political argument over how open the council is being about its finances and infrastructure.
Transparency questions
Mr Yasin’s intervention on potholes follows growing concern at Borough Hall about the authority’s wider financial position.
As previously reported, the council has asked the government for up to £55 million in exceptional financial support to help balance its budgets over the next three years.
Read: Calls for greater transparency with public as Mayor admits request for £55m government bailout
Senior opposition councillors have warned that the council’s new Improvement Plan does not clearly spell out the scale of the problem for residents.
Read: Council executive approves improvement plan to tackle Borough’s financial pressures
In July last year, questions were also raised over transparency when a report by financial experts CIPFA into Bedford Borough Council’s operations had still not been shared in full with all councillors or published publicly, prompting calls from within the council’s own executive for greater clarity.
This report, following pressure from local media and Borough Councillors, was made public in September 2025.
Read: Report says Bedford Borough Council must take urgent action to avoid bankruptcy
The government says its new pothole performance ratings and multi-year funding are designed to increase transparency and shift councils away from “expensive, short-term repairs”.
They say this will lead to long-term preventive maintenance that improves road conditions and delivers better value for money.
