Holes in Herts Highways

15 March 2012, 13:11 | Updated: 15 March 2012, 17:10

A report from the Asphalt Industry Alliance says that most local councils have an 11 year backlog of road maintenance to catch up on. Hertfordshire County Council say their back log is around 8 years.

Councillor Stewart Pile whose in charge of maintaining the roads in the county, blames the government for the huge backlog saying they should have invested more into improving the roads 20 years ago.

Over 12,000 potholes were filled in Hertfordshire last year costing the council around £2.5 billion. Pile says they would do more if they had more money.

Councillor Stuart Pile says:

"Hertfordshire is the busiest county in the country with the most lorries, our proximity to London and our economic success in the past has led to a lot of this work needing to be done now so out plea to the government is we need more funding"

The report by the AIA confirms this, saying authorities don't have the money needed to fix the roads.

It estimates that a one-off cost of nearly £10 billion is needed to repair all the potholes.