‘Pothole crisis’ across Hertfordshire sparks row

A “POTHOLE crisis” is engulfing the county according to a fuming critic.

Welwyn Hatfield and county councillor Malcolm Cowan called for special measures to spot faults and fix the “mass of holes”, which he said our roads had been reduced to.

Cllr Cowan said: “Astonishingly, the response I got was that they would only be looking at main roads and so presumably they will rely on residents to report faults on the rest.

“With lights going off around midnight, where they still work, and deep potholes not being systematically scouted, the service is getting worse by the month.

“What next – we each get a bag of tar and are told to fix the potholes ourselves?”

But Cllr Stuart Pile, who is responsible for the county’s highways, said: “Malcolm Cowan is wrong when he says that we are only inspecting the main roads.

“We follow the National Codes of Practice and inspect every road regularly, on a scale according to the road classification, so main roads for example are inspected monthly.”

He said contractor Ringway currently has around 200 staff working to clear a backlog of 902 repairs.