Mission Possible: new teams target areas most in need of highway work in Oxfordshire

Meet the highways teams taking a more agile approach to maintenance and improvements in Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council and its principal highways contractor M Group has deployed highways asset response teams (HARTs) to carry out minor repairs, cleaning, and other work in towns and villages where they are most needed.

Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Management, said: “Following concerns raised by our communities in relation to highway improvements and maintenance, we're taking a more proactive approach. This initiative strengthens our collaboration with local communities.

“These teams are equipped to deliver on the ground remedial work, addressing issues more quickly.

“By being present and responsive within the community, we’re not just maintaining infrastructure, we’re building trust, improving safety, and ensuring that local concerns are acted on swiftly and effectively.”

Work carried out by the HARTs includes cleaning street signs, removing damaged railings, clearing vegetation, resetting uneven slabs and kerbstones, cleaning debris from footways, patching road defects, repairing footway defects, and removing fly posters and redundant street barriers.

In the first 10 weeks of the programme the teams cleared vegetation from 313 sites, cleaned 213 signs, removed 63 illegal signs or posters, repaired 128 potholes, fixed 17 footpaths and completed 87 other tasks such as cone removal, general tidying up, and installing barriers.

Richard Lovewell, M Group Business Director, said: “We know that seemingly minor issues like dirty signs or overgrown hedges can have a real impact on how people experience their local area. That’s why we’re proud to be deploying the highways asset response teams to deliver fast, visible improvements that residents truly notice.

“It allows our skilled teams to ‘blitz’ an area, fixing a wide range of issues in one go. Results so far have been outstanding. Our teams love being able to make such a meaningful difference in one go, and the feedback from the community has been fantastic.”

Locations are chosen based on a high volume of reports to the council’s Fix My Street portal, engagement with town and parish councils, as well as places where temporary safety measures had previously been installed.

Areas visited so far by the HARTs have included Bicester, Banbury, Witney, Abingdon, Didcot, Wantage and Grove.

They also work closely with the council’s highways engagement team to keep residents informed, providing clear updates on what can be resolved immediately and what may require further action.

Cllr Gant added: “Over the coming months, we’ll be engaging more closely with town and parish councils to identify priority areas where their local knowledge and presence can help us respond more effectively to community needs.

“This evolving partnership is all about making sure resources are focused where they’re most needed, ensuring timely and visible improvements that matter to residents.”

Reporting road and street problems on Fix My Street, which is on the council’s website, remains the most effective way to report local issues.

Highways officers monitor reports daily and assess whether the locations are suitable for action. Providing detailed information, such as accurate locations, clear photographs, and measurements – where practical and safe to do so – greatly streamline the response process.

It helps the teams assess and resolve issues more efficiently, reducing the need for repeat visits and ensuring that resources are used effectively to deliver timely improvements.