Regulator reports mixed results for Yorkshire and North East region roads

The Office of Rail and Road’s 2021-22 Benchmarking National Highways report, published today, outlines the regional differences in performance across National Highways’ motorways and major A roads in England. The latest edition reviews the second year of Road Period 2 (RP2) which spans 2020-21 to 2024-25.

The Yorkshire and North East region recorded mixed results across the key performance measures set by ORR for National Highways in 2021-22.  The region recorded a user satisfaction score of 68.8% - the fourth highest of the National Highways six regions.

As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions eased, traffic levels on England’s Strategic Road Network (SRN) increased which affected the level of delays experienced by road users. Yorkshire and North East users saw an increase in delays of 2.1 seconds per vehicle mile, up from 6.2 seconds to 8.3 seconds, in line with the National Highways average increase.

The national average traffic delay in 2021-22 was 8.8 seconds per vehicle mile, up from 6.7 seconds in 2020-21.

National Highways is tasked with clearing 86% of motorway incidents within an hour. Performance fell between 2020-21 and 2021-22, as traffic levels recovered following the COVID-19 pandemic and the number of incidents on the SRN increased. 

However, all regions continued to perform above the national-level target, with Yorkshire and North East ranking fifth and registering 86.4% of incidents cleared within an hour.

The accuracy and timeliness with which National Highways provides roadworks information is measured by the percentage of overnight road closures that are accurately notified by National Highways. Nationally, the company is targeting 90% accuracy by 2024-25. Yorkshire and North East had the lowest performance against this measure in 2021-22 at 62.1%.

Feras Alshaker, Director of Highways at ORR, said: 

“In 2021-22, National Highways’ regions were dealt the challenge of maintaining performance in the face of rising traffic levels following the COVID-19 pandemic. As traffic levels recovered, delays also increased. Nevertheless, we have seen examples of where the regions have improved performance. 

“Our report is an important resource that we expect National Highways to use to explore and understand regional variations in performance and, where practicable, to act on lessons learned to improve performance across the strategic road network. This will, ultimately, lead to better outcomes for road users, the communities it serves, as well as for the environment and the taxpayer.”