Bedford Borough Council has admitted it sent incorrect road maintenance figures to the Department for Transport (DfT), leading to the authority being ranked among the worst in England for tackling potholes.
The council remains rated red in the government’s new pothole league table at the time of publication, despite Mayor Tom Wootton saying the score is based on wrong data and is now being corrected.
On Sunday (11 January), the DfT published its first national ‘traffic light’ ratings for local highway authorities, placing Bedford Borough in the red category for overall performance on road condition, spending and maintenance practice.
Read: Bedford among 13 worst authorities for fixing potholes
The Bedford Independent has since learned that the red rating stems from incorrect financial information being submitted to the DfT by Bedford Borough Council.
A spokesperson for the Mayor’s office explained that when the council’s figures were supplied, only its £3.2 million capital contribution was used for the spend metric, instead of the full highways maintenance total.
“In terms of the error, the spend metric scoring had been calculated using only the Council’s £3.2m capital figure, rather than the combined total highways maintenance investment (DfT funding of £6.3m plus the Council’s capital contribution), which should have totalled over £9.5m,” they said.
“Because a partial figure was used instead of the full combined investment, the spend metric was scored as zero, which in turn drove the Red rating. With the full figure included, Bedford should have scored around 80 on that metric.”
Mayor Tom Wootton (Conservative) said council officers had now submitted updated numbers.
“It is disappointing that an error was made in the data submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT). However, Council Officers have acted immediately to supply correct figures, and the updated figures have now been provided to the DfT,” he said.
Mayor criticises DfT
The confusion over the red rating comes days after Bedford and Kempston MP Mohammad Yasin (Labour) wrote to the Mayor calling for “urgent action” on potholes, following national coverage of the new league table.
Read: Bedford & Kempston MP writes to Mayor over ‘unacceptable’ road conditions
In a Facebook post on Monday (12 January), Mr Yasin highlighted that Bedford Borough was one of just 13 local authorities to receive a red rating and said local drivers were facing “unacceptable” road conditions.
He urged the council to accept government-funded expert support and make full use of a £31.8 million long-term highways settlement for 2026/27 to 2029/30.
In his written response, the Mayor told the MP he “will no doubt be pleased to learn that the red rating attributed to Bedford Borough is incorrect”.
He added that the council was already investing a record £9.5 million in highways maintenance, combining £6 million of government funding with its own capital.
He also criticised Mr Yasin for publishing his letter online before sending it formally to the council.
“Residents deserve straight talking. I am therefore disappointed not only that you chose to publish your letter days before sending it to me, but also that you sought to talk Bedford down in the process,” he wrote.
“As elected representatives, we have a shared responsibility to talk our area up, not undermine confidence in it.”
The Mayor later told the Bedford Independent, “Since May 2023, we have been working to turn around the deteriorating road network we inherited.
“In the last two years alone, unclassified roads that make up around 60% of the Borough’s road network have seen a huge improvement. Those with a red rating have fallen from 38% in 2023 to 18% now.
“We are also repairing more potholes than ever before, increasing from 3,841 (2022/23) to 6,308 (2024/25), backed up with £9.5 million of investment in highways maintenance, combining Government funding and Council capital.”
“Residents do not want to see every issue politicised. They want results, and that is what we are delivering.”
MP blames Mayor
Responding to the row, Mr Yasin said his concerns were focused on how effectively record levels of government funding are being used to improve local roads, not on party politics.
“As I understand it, the data was provided by Bedford Borough. If the information is incorrect, the error originates there, and responsibility ultimately rests with Mayor Wootton,” he said.
“What I am clear about is that the Labour Government has committed record levels of investment to improving our roads in Bedford and Kempston.
“My correspondence with the Mayor was focused on ensuring that this record funding is being used as effectively as possible to deliver real improvements for residents.
“While it is welcome that progress has been made, I continue to hear regularly from constituents about the poor condition of roads and persistent potholes, and further, faster action is needed.”
He also disputed the Mayor’s suggestion that his letter was shared publicly before being sent to Borough Hall.
“It is incorrect to suggest that I published my letter on social media days before sending it to the Mayor,” he said.
“The letter was emailed to Mayor Wootton at 5:19pm on Monday, 12 January, and a copy was shared on my social media pages at 6:32pm. This followed independent reporting of the DfT ratings by media outlets…
“As a matter of principle, I always send correspondence to the intended recipient first before sharing it publicly, in the interests of openness and transparency with constituents.”
Mr Yasin said he had become “increasingly frustrated” by response times from the Mayor’s office, which he said were “well outside the council’s own service standards”.
He also criticised the lack of replies on other matters, including road gritting and East West Rail’s Queen’s Park car park proposals.
“I did, however, become aware of the Mayor’s response to my letter from Monday when it was posted on his social media channels during a full council meeting on Wednesday,” he added.
“What residents rightly expect is for all of us to work constructively to improve local services, including the condition of our roads.
“Accountability matters, and raising concerns where improvements are needed is part of that responsibility. The focus should always be on delivering better outcomes for the people of Bedford, not on political point-scoring.”
DfT hits back
While the council says it is working with officials to correct its figures, the Department for Transport has strongly rejected any suggestion that it mishandled the information supplied by local authorities.
“We are shining a light of transparency on the work of councils to fix roads and end the pothole plague,” a DfT spokesperson told the Bedford Independent.
“The suggestion that the Department has mishandled or ignored data is categorically untrue. The ratings follow a clear, published methodology using data from official statistics that local authorities provided themselves.”
The department did not confirm whether it has yet received updated figures from Bedford, or when any revised rating might appear on its public map.
At the time of publication, the DfT’s online dashboard still shows Bedford Borough Council as red overall for pothole performance.
When the new ratings were first released, Bedford Borough’s red status placed it among the 13 lowest-scoring councils nationally for roads and potholes, prompting national headlines and fresh scrutiny of the borough’s network.
The underlying DfT data gave Bedford an amber score for road condition but a red rating for spending on highway maintenance, pulling its overall performance into the lowest band.
In response, the council said its own surveys showed conditions had improved since 2023, with fewer unclassified roads in the worst category and more pothole repairs being completed each year, as previously reported by the Bedford Independent.
Speaking on Tuesday (13 January), portfolio holder for finance, Councillor Marc Frost (Conservative, Wixams), said the administration had moved away from patching individual defects and towards “planned preventative resurfacing” to fix underlying problems more permanently.
He also questioned the fairness of a single-word label, arguing that it did not reflect the pace of recent improvements and that officers were seeking further clarity from the DfT.
