Here is a summary of the items scheduled for discussion by the Lincolnshire Council Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee. The agenda included budget proposals for 2026/27, an annual report on public transport, an interim report on winter services, an update on the FixMyStreet platform, and a review of the committee's work programme. The committee was also scheduled to discuss the minutes from previous meetings held on 8 December 2025 and 15 December 2025.

Budget Proposals 2026/2027

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Budget Highways and Transport Committee Paper Jan26, which outlines the budget proposals for the Highways and Transport services for the financial year 2026/2027. According to the report, the council projects that it can balance its budget across all years of the 2026/2030 medium term financial plan.

The proposed revenue budget for Highways and Transport services is:

The report stated that the £2.6 million cost increase for transport services was largely due to a rise in costs of £1.3 million relating to home to school transport, with external factors such as fuel and vehicle prices also impacting the budget by £0.9 million. Pupil growth and increased SEND¹ transport requirements were expected to increase the budget requirement by £1.5 million. Savings of approximately £1.0 million were expected due to route optimisation and retendering.

The report also noted that the overall position for Highways was a proposed budget increase of £3.662 million, predominantly driven by commercial contract inflationary pressures and additional budget for improvements to the council's drainage offer. Contract inflation within Highways was running at an average of 4.5%, resulting in an additional cost of £2.2 million in 2026/27. The budget was also adjusted by £1.5 million to reflect budget pressure within the statutory fault response service.

The report stated that the government had announced £7.3 billion of funding for local highway maintenance between 2026 and 2030. Lincolnshire County Council was likely to receive £62,520,605 in 2026/27, rising to £89,696,145 in 2029/30.

The report also mentioned increased budget allocations to the Grantham Southern Relief Road (£38.4 million), the North Hykeham Relief Road (£14.0 million), and the Lincoln Eastern Bypass (£0.2 million).

Public Transport Annual Report

The committee was scheduled to receive the HT Scrutiny Committee Public Transport Annual Report providing an annual update on public transport services supported by Lincolnshire County Council. The report noted that Transport Focus reported a 91% satisfaction rating for bus services in Lincolnshire, placing the county second in the ranking table for 2024.

The report stated that Lincolnshire County Council received £6,400,000 in revenue funding and £2,200,000 in capital funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) to deliver the ambitions of the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).

The report highlighted improvements to town centric bus services in Gainsborough, Grantham, Sleaford, Stamford and Skegness, as well as inter urban services such as the IC59 service linking Skegness and Mablethorpe, the IC37 between Spalding and Peterborough, the 50A between Louth and Mablethorpe and the IC53 linking Lincoln and Grimsby.

The report also detailed improvements to bus stop infrastructure, including the installation of 422 bus stops, the refurbishment of 86 bus shelters, the replacement of 35 bus shelters and the installation of real time information displays.

The council also purchased 10 new Mercedes Cityline vehicles for use on the county wide demand responsive travel service, Callconnect.

Winter Service – Interim Report

The committee was scheduled to receive an interim report on the current performance and delivery of the winter service. According to the Winter Service 2025-26 Interim Report V2, Lincolnshire County Council delivers precautionary and snow clearance treatments on carriageways and footways in accordance with its Winter Service Plan. The service prioritises 3,018 km of the Lincolnshire road network, forming the Precautionary Salting Network.

The report stated that the authority operates 43 gritters strategically located across the county, supported by 4 spare vehicles. Full treatment of the Precautionary Salting Network takes a maximum of three hours. Salt stock levels are maintained with a minimum of 25,000 tonnes at the start of the season and a minimum of 15,000 tonnes available throughout the season.

At the beginning of the season, salt stock across the County stood at 29,297 tonnes. As of 13 January 2026, 19,309 tonnes remained. During the winter of 2024/25, the Authority carried out 71 precautionary salting turnouts, using 18,197 tonnes of salt. So far this season (2025/26), 44 precautionary salting runs have been completed, using 12,314 tonnes of salt up to 13 January 2026.

FixMyStreet Update

The committee was scheduled to receive a FMS Scrutiny Report January 2026 providing an overview of the use of the public-facing, fault-reporting platform FixMyStreet within Lincolnshire County Council's Highways Service. Lincolnshire County Council has been using FixMyStreet Pro (FMS) since 2018. The platform costs in the region of £38,000 per annum and enables customers to report, view, and discuss problems on the highway network. In 2025 it processed 45,423 reports and almost 300,000 updates.

The report stated that improvements are managed using a development pipeline focused on changes that will deliver the greatest benefit to residents and the council. Over the last 12 months targeted improvements have been implemented with the aim of ensuring good customer experience from the point of reporting to resolution, including clearer customer updates and refined template responses.

Planned improvements over the next 12 months include a customer satisfaction survey, an improved reporting process and the addition of tree assets.

Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review and approve the contents of its work programme, and highlight any additional scrutiny activity which could be included for consideration in the work programme. According to the HTSC Current Work Programme Jan 2026, the committee was scheduled to discuss the Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy 2026, the Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Plan 2025 and the Spalding to Pinchbeck Active Travel Improvements Tender Award (Phases 3-5) at its meeting on 16 March 2026.