Classified Unnumbered road

A Classified unnumbered road, or Class III road, is a category of road in the United Kingdom, recognised by the Department for Transport. In importance, they are between Classified Numbered roads (also known as Class II or B roads), and Unclassified roads.

Designating or de-designating a road as "classified unnumbered" requires the approval of the Secretary of State for Transport.

Suggestions for increasing the classification of roads started almost immediately after the initial allocations in 1922-23. Several London borough councils thought more roads should be classified in their areas, particularly roads that were used as bus routes. C roads began to appear as an informal set of classifications on a per-county basis during the 1940s, and while there was consideration to putting them on signs, this was abandoned. Class III roads themselves were instituted in April 1946, and from that time grants of 50% were allocated to Highway Authorities towards to costs of work on these roads.

It is a common misconception that roads marked on OS Landranger mapping in yellow, or those in bright yellow on newer maps are Class III roads. This is not the case, and the application of the yellow colouring refers to the physical standard of the road and not its classification.

Numbering

Although commonly referred to as C Roads, this is not always true. While the majority of Highway Authorities use the C prefix, several use other letters. For example Newport and Monmouthshire Councils use an "R" prefix, and Wolverhampton Council uses a "U" prefix, which they state stands for urban classified. Some Highway Authorities have chosen to use "Z" as an additional prefix for spurs or alternative routes off the main route, giving rise to "ZC" and "ZR" roads. Some Highway Authorities even choose to not number their Class III system at all.

There is no national system of numbering for Class III roads, which remain officially unnumbered at a national level. Each Highway Authority has their own system and therefore there can be several examples of each road number around the country - see C1 as an example. Many Highway Authorities share their numbering with a neighbouring authority, this is usually due to the numbering system being established prior to government reorganisations and boundary changes, and then the replacement authorities simply continuing to use the predecessor body's numbering. For example, there appears to be an old West Riding of Yorkshire system that is still used across the modern day metropolitan authorities. Any numbering of a Class III road should be unique within each Highway Authority; and will therefore not be unique nationally.

However, the existence of an internal number for the road within a Highway Authority does not mean that the road is a Class III road. Some authorities also choose to number some or all of their Unclassified roads network with secondary letters, often D or U.

Signage

A rare example of a C road on a road sign in Northern Ireland

As a rule, Class III numbers are not shown on signage, but they are occasionally spotted, both on permanent signs and roadworks signs. This has given rise to the SABRE term "The Great C Road Hunt", as members submit sightings of road numbers on temporary (or permanent signage). Many Highway Authorities supply lists of their Class III roads online or via a Freedom of Information request, however some are less helpful, requiring a more in depth search online. As an example, a lot of Gloucestershire Council's road numbering has been gleaned from their online roadworks notices.

Roads.org.uk also has a page where there are examples of visitor submitted sightings of Class III roads on signage.

Origin of name

Whilst the term classified unnumbered seems like an oxymoron, the term comes from the fact that historically the roads were classified for funding purposes, yet were not numbered at a national level.

Road Lists By Council Area

Note: Total network lengths are only displayed where known - either from Freedom of Information requests or by calculating the total from completed council pages. These totals will be revised as necessary.

England - North West

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Blackburn with Darwen Council	C
Blackpool	C			Possibly also "CBA" Prefixes
Bolton	?
Bury	?
Cheshire West and Chester	C
Cheshire East	C
Cumberland	C	1025.0	636.7
Halton	?
Knowsley	?
Lancashire	C	1328.5	825.6	Some "CBA" roads near Blackpool
Liverpool	?
Manchester	?
Oldham	?
Rochdale	U
Salford	?
Sefton	?
St Helens	?
Stockport	C	17.1	10.6
Tameside	?
Trafford	C
Warrington	C
Westmorland and Furness	C	1293.7	803.5
Wigan	?
Wirral	C

England - North East

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Darlington	C	99.9	62.0	Also has ZC roads
Durham	C	677.0	420.5
Gateshead	C
Hartlepool	C	21.6	13.4
Middlesbrough	C	34.6	21.5
Newcastle upon Tyne	C
North Tyneside	?
Northumberland	C	1498.0	930.5
Redcar and Cleveland	C	46.5	28.9
South Tyneside	C
Stockton-on-Tees	C	100.3	62.3
Sunderland	C	59.7	37.1

England - Yorkshire & Humber

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Barnsley	C	139.4	86.6
Bradford	C	121.4	75.4
Calderdale	C	81.0	51.3
Doncaster	C	257.8	160.1
East Riding of Yorkshire	C
Kirklees	C	160.0	99.4
Kingston upon Hull	C	47.2	29.3
Leeds	C	164.6	102.2
North Lincolnshire	C	336.0	208.7
North East Lincolnshire	C	80.1	49.8
North Yorkshire	C	2785.0	1729.8
Rotherham	C	177.3	110.1
Sheffield	C	210.3	130.6
Wakefield	C	130.8	81.2
York	C	134.5	83.5

England - West Midlands

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Birmingham	?
Coventry	C	54.2	33.7
Dudley	C	39.3	24.4
Herefordshire	C			Uses the C1xxx series
Sandwell	?
Shropshire	?
Solihull	C	88.0	55.7	Uses the USRN numbers
Staffordshire	C
Stoke-on-Trent	C
Telford and Wrekin	?
Walsall	C	11.0	6.8
Warwickshire	C	824.0	511.8
Wolverhampton	U	32.5	20.2
Worcestershire	C	1066.2	662.2	Uses the C2xxx series

England - East Midlands

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Derby	C	53.3	33.1
Derbyshire	C
Leicester	C	33.0	20.5
Leicestershire	C	1295.0	804.3
Lincolnshire	C	2917.6	1812.2
North Northamptonshire	C	463.0	287.6
Nottingham	C	39.3	24.4
Nottinghamshire	C	915.5	568.6
Rutland	C	127.6	79.3	Some roads still unidentified
West Northamptonshire	C	653.0	405.6

England - East

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Bedford	C	220.0	136.6
Cambridgeshire	C	1090.1	677.1
Central Bedfordshire	C	329.7	204.8
Essex	?
Luton	C	9.5	5.9
Norfolk	C
Peterborough	C	186.3	115.7
Southend-on-Sea	?
Suffolk	C
Thurrock	?

England - South West

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Bath and North East Somerset	C	286.9	178.2
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	C	109.6	68.1
Bristol	C	68.7	42.7
Cornwall	C
Devon	C
Dorset	C
Gloucestershire	C
Isles of Scilly	?	0.0	0.0	No C roads known to exist
North Somerset	?
Plymouth	C
Somerset	C
South Gloucestershire	C	270.5	168.0
Swindon	C	36.2	22.5
Torbay	C
Wiltshire	C

England - South East

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Bracknell	C
Brighton and Hove	C	34.6	21.5
Buckinghamshire	C & MC	795.0	493.8
East Sussex	C
Hampshire	C
Hertfordshire	C	798.4	495.9
Isle of Wight	C	180.7	112.2
Kent	C	1849.0	1148.5
Medway	C	78.6	48.8
Milton Keynes	C	215.4	133.8	Some H & V roads also have a C designation
Oxfordshire	C
Portsmouth	C	19.1	11.9
Reading	C	59.7	37.1
Slough	C	2.4	1.5
Southampton	C
Surrey	C
West Berkshire	C	391.1	243.0
West Sussex	C
Windsor and Maidenhead	C	104.3	64.8
Wokingham	C

England - London

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Barnet
Barking and Dagenham
Bexley
Bromley
Croydon
Ealing
Enfield
Greenwich
Hackney
Hammersmith and Fulham
Haringey
Harrow
Havering
Hillingdon	Various	50.7	31.5	Prefix relects former districts
Hounslow	C
Islington
Lambeth	C
Kensington and Chelsea
Kingston upon Thames
Merton
Newham
Redbridge
Richmond upon Thames
Southwark	C	37.4	23.2
Sutton	C	18.2	11.3
Tower Hamlets
Waltham Forest
Wandsworth	?	0.0	0.0	No Class III roads in council area
Westminster	C	28.8	17.9

Northern Ireland

All roads in Northern Ireland are maintained by Transport NI, see Transport NI (Class III roads) for Class III roads in Northern Ireland.

County	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Antrim	C	925.6	574.9
Armagh	C	639.0	396.9
Down	C	991.2	615.7
Fermanagh	C	334.2	207.6
Londonderry	C	524.5	325.8
Tyrone	C	1133.7	704.2

Scotland

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Aberdeen	C	89.7	55.7	Uses a suffix depending on the former county council
Aberdeenshire	C	1417.0	880.2	Uses a suffix depending on the former county council
Angus	C	452.7	281.2
Argyll & Bute	C	409.3	254.2	Also has a single "UC"
Borders	C	766.8	476.3
Clackmannanshire	C	24.6	15.3
Dumfries & Galloway	C	1185.0	736.0	Uses a suffix depending on the former district council system
Dundee	C	93.7	58.2
Eilean Siar	C	161.0	100.0
East Ayrshire	C	205.8	127.8
East Dunbartonshire	C	27.0	16.8
East Lothian	C	195.1	121.2
East Renfrewshire	C	83.7	52.0
Edinburgh	ZC	107.1	66.5
Falkirk	C	77.1	47.9
Fife	C	316.0	196.3
Glasgow	C	226.0	140.4	Numbers not known
Highland	C	1445.2	897.6	Uses a suffix depending on the former district system
Inverclyde	C	43.6	27.1
Midlothian	C	68.7	42.7
Moray	C	357.6	222.1	Uses a suffix depending on the former county
North Ayrshire	C & U	217.5	135.1	Also uses CL
North Lanarkshire	C	169.5	105.3
Orkney	C	146.2	90.8
Perth & Kinross	C	623.7	387.4
Renfrewshire	C	127.8	79.4
Shetland	C	198.5	123.3
South Ayrshire	C	210.9	131.0
South Lanarkshire	C	385.8	239.7
Stirling	C	161.4	100.3
West Dunbartonshire	C	26.2	16.2
West Lothian	C	110.9	68.9

Wales

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Blaenau Gwent	?
Bridgend	?
Caerphilly	?
Cardiff	C
Carmarthenshire	C
Ceredigion	C
Conwy	C
Denbighshire	C
Flintshire	C
Gwynedd	C
Isle of Anglesey	C	360.9	224.2
Merthyr Tydfil	C	32.5	20.2
Monmouthshire	R			Also has some ZR roads
Neath Port Talbot	C
Newport	R
Pembrokeshire	C
Powys	C
Rhondda Cynon Taf	C	116.1	72.1
Swansea	C & ZC
Torfaen	R
Vale of Glamorgan	?
Wrexham	C

Other

Highway Authority	Prefix	Network Length		Notes
		kilometres	miles
Jersey	C	33.8	24.1
Isle of Man	C
National Highways	C

External links

• DfT Guidance on road classification (2012) (archive.org)