Kent County Council Calls on Residents to Rate Roads, Buses and Cycling Routes

Your Say on Kent’s Roads

Kent County Council wants to hear from residents across the county about their daily experience of roads, buses and cycle routes — and this isn’t just the usual box-ticking. The council is taking part in the National Highways and Transport (NHT) Survey 2024–25, a UK-wide benchmarking exercise that lets councils measure resident satisfaction against comparable authorities. For a county of well over 1.5 million people, the gap between what residents actually experience on the ground and what officials believe is happening can be — to put it politely — considerable.

Six areas are covered: accessibility, highways maintenance, public transport, road safety, congestion, and walking and cycling. Each questionnaire takes only a few minutes online. Responses are anonymous, and where age or other demographic details are requested, it’s simply to identify which groups aren’t yet being heard — not to track individuals.

More Than Just a Tick-Box Exercise

So why does this survey carry more weight than the usual round of public consultations? The timing tells you a lot.

KCC’s current Highways Term Maintenance Contract with Amey Highways was due to expire, with new arrangements required from 1 November 2025 and full service continuity needed from 1 May 2026. Council reports have warned that failing to commission services beyond that point would put KCC at real risk. Resident feedback from the NHT survey is intended to feed directly into the performance expectations written into that new contract — meaning what people say now could shape how pothole repairs, pavement upkeep and drainage work are handled for years to come. That’s not nothing.

But there’s a fair question lurking here: how many residents genuinely believe survey responses translate into visible change, particularly when council budgets remain under serious pressure?

A County With Very Different Transport Needs

Kent isn’t one place. It never has been.

Maidstone and Canterbury face urban congestion and cycling infrastructure gaps. Coastal towns — Margate, Dover, Folkestone — deal with port-related traffic and the lurching pressures of the tourist season. And in rural villages, bus provision can be so thin that residents without a car are, in practice, cut off. Not inconvenienced. Cut off.

The NHT survey is designed to capture those geographic differences. By breaking down responses by area and demographic group, KCC can identify where older residents, disabled people or young people are reporting worse transport experiences — and use that to target accessibility improvements, safer school routes or better integration with health and social care transport.

The Bigger Strategic Picture

Alongside the NHT survey, KCC is also consulting on its Local Transport Plan 5 — the council’s long-term strategic document covering roads, bus services, rail, cycling and walking. Drop-in events and online engagement are running concurrently. Transport for the South East, the regional transport body, has emphasised Kent’s role in the wider network: freight routes, strategic roads and cross-county travel all feed into something far bigger than any single pothole or missed bus.

Yet councillors have been clear they want stronger transparency and communication around highways decisions. Not just data collection.

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Key Takeaways

• Kent County Council is participating in the national NHT Survey 2024–25, covering six transport topics including road safety, public transport and active travel
• Survey responses are intended to inform both the new Highways Term Maintenance Contract and the council’s Local Transport Plan 5
• All Kent residents can take part, including recent arrivals and those who don’t pay Council Tax — responses are anonymous

What This Means for Kent Residents

Whether you’re stuck on the M20, waiting for a rural bus that simply won’t come, or trying to cycle safely through Canterbury, this survey is one of the few direct routes into council decision-making on transport. KCC has explicitly linked the results to its upcoming highways maintenance contract — which means resident priorities could genuinely shape service standards and contractor performance measures from May 2026 onwards. Residents in under-served coastal and rural areas are particularly encouraged to respond, as the survey is built to spot gaps in representation across different parts of the county.