Recommendation 57

National Highways mitigated risks of pollution from 23 drainage points in 2020/21. At this rate it will take over 55 years to address the 1,326 outfalls and soakaways it has identified as high risk, not to mention the thousands of other potentially polluting drains on the strategic road network. This is unacceptably slow progress. We are sceptical that the company will be able to achieve its target of no net loss of biodiversity without working at a much faster rate to neutralise the direct risks to water quality from those outfalls it manages. (Paragraph 287) Water quality in rivers 127