Infuriated county councillor hits out at Tory leaders after rise in vehicles damaged by Hertfordshire potholes

It's just not good enough", says an infuriated county councillor - after it emerged that vehicle damage from Hertfordshire potholes has quadrupled in the last three years.

Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Lib Dem transport spokesperson, discovered the number of damage claims by residents rose from 466 in 2021 to over 1,800 last year.

The Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) data relates to compensation for cars and vans damaged by potholes.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst said: “These figures reveal the true scale of the council leadership’s failure to repair our roads.

“They boast of doubling the number of fixed potholes in the last year. But the reality of nearly two thousand insurance claims shows things are getting worse, not better.

“Every week my Lib Dem colleagues and I report dozens of new potholes, but repairs take months and are often refused because they’re ‘too small’.

“That leads to huge craters forming in the road surface, endangering motorists and damaging cars.

“We’ve long called for a quicker and more efficient system, where all potholes within an area are repaired in a single crew visit - tackling small holes before they become big problems.

“But Conservative council leaders refuse. As a consequence, money gets wasted on compensation for damage caused by potholes - instead of just fixing them in the first place”.

Late last year. HCC said more than 16,000 extra potholes had been repaired on county roads across the previous few months after the Government awarded the county council almost £3.95million from the national Potholes Fund.

The county council has been contacted for comment.