Gloucestershire is set to harness artificial intelligence to survey the state of its rural roads amid concerns over a lack of data on unclassified routes.
The county's highways authorities have disclosed their collaboration with the Department for Transport (DfT) to develop an AI-driven camera assessment system for their road networks, which is expected to be operational next year.
The issue was spotlighted this week when councillor Chloe Turner (G, Minchinhampton) raised a query at Gloucestershire County Council's cabinet meeting, questioning the absence of recent statistics.
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She said: "Why do we not have figures for the past two years for 'percentage of unclassified roads where maintenance should be considered'.
"When will we have data for this measure, as it is crucial for those of us with rural divisions?".
Councillor Joe Harris (LD, Cirencester Park), who oversees the county's highways, acknowledged the significance of the concern given the vast extent of unclassified roads.
In his written reply to Cllr Turner, he explained: "Road condition for our much larger unclassified roads network was previously assessed every three year period using a specialised 'scanner' vehicle," and noted that this method was once the national standard agreed upon with the DfT.
"Since the last assessment period in 2023 when Dft removed both the reporting requirement and standard by which to measure unclassified roads, all authorities have been working with DfT to implement an AI based camera assessment of their networks.
"This remains under development but is likely to be the agreed method to be implemented in 2026."