Hertfordshire: 38,806 Potholes a Year and a £29m Target in Reverse
Hertfordshire County Council spends roughly three times its DfT capital allocation and earns a GREEN scorecard for spend. Yet the overall rating is AMBER — because RED-condition B roads more than doubled in a single year, 18% of unclassified roads needed maintenance at the last published survey despite a £29m improvement programme, and pothole repairs are up 49% in five years.
What The Condition Data Shows
Six years of survey data from Hertfordshire's own transparency report — A roads holding steady, B roads falling off a cliff
A roads (697km — 14% of network): stable
Credit where due: main roads are machine-surveyed every year and have held steady. But A roads are only one-seventh of the network.
B roads: RED more than doubled in one year
| Year | Red | Amber | Green |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | 3.5% | 22.3% | 74.2% |
| 2020/21 | 6.3% | 27.7% | 66.2% |
| 2021/22 | 2.8% | 19.6% | 77.7% |
| 2022/23 | 3.0% | 21.0% | 76.0% |
| 2023/24 | 3.2% | 22.4% | 74.4% |
| 2024/25 | 7.0% | 31.0% | 62.0% |
In a single year, RED-condition B roads jumped from 3.2% to 7.0% — the worst figure in six years of published data — and good-condition B roads collapsed from 74.4% to 62.0%. These are machine-survey figures, not estimates. Over a third of the B road network now needs, or will soon need, maintenance.
C roads: drifting back to where they started
C roads improved to 4.5% RED in 2021/22, then gave the gains back: by 2024/25 they were at 6.0% RED — level with 2019/20 — and 35% of the C network was RED or amber combined.
And This Is The Well-Funded Version
Hertfordshire spent over three times its DfT allocation in 2024/25, and projects £90.9m of capital spend for 2025/26 — yet B and C roads are still declining and pothole repairs keep rising. The problem isn't the chequebook. The network is deteriorating faster than even a GREEN-rated spend programme can hold back.
The £29m Programme That Went Backwards
64% of the network is unclassified roads — and they're now in worse shape than before the council's five-year improvement programme began
| Year | U roads in the RED category |
|---|---|
| 2016/17 (£29m programme start point) | 16% |
| 2017/18 | 10% |
| 2018/19 | 9% |
| 2019/20 | 7% |
| 2020/21 | 12% |
| 2021/22 | 7% |
| 2022/23 (target was 8%) | 10% |
| 2023/24 (latest published) | 18% |
Worse Than Where It Started
Hertfordshire committed "an additional £29m over five years to improve the unclassified network" with "the ambition to halve the percentage of roads that should be considered for maintenance" — from 16% in 2016/17 to a target of 8% by 2022/23.
The actual 2022/23 figure was 10% — target missed. A year later it hit 18% — higher than the figure the £29m programme set out to halve. On a 3,244km unclassified network, that is roughly 580km of residential streets, estate roads and rural lanes in the "maintenance should be considered" category.
The Subjective-Survey Caveat
Unlike A, B and C roads, which get machine surveys, the council's own report says U-road figures "are usually based on a more subjective visual inspection by accredited inspectors" and "show greater change from year to year".
To its credit, Hertfordshire surveys all unclassified roads every year — many councils don't. But the council itself flags that the method is subjective, and it plans to phase out visual inspections for automated technology under new DfT guidance. The condition record for two-thirds of the network rests on the weakest survey method available.
Why This Matters For Section 58
To rely on the Section 58 defence, a council must show it had a reasonable system for knowing the condition of its roads and acting on it. For Hertfordshire's unclassified network, ask:
- • If 18% of U roads were RED at the last published survey, what was the plan for yours?
- • The council knew the 8% target was missed in 2022/23 — what changed in response?
- • How reliable is a "subjective visual inspection" as the sole condition record for 3,244km of road?
- • If condition more than doubled in a year (7% to 18% between 2021/22 and 2023/24), were inspection frequencies increased to match?
A council that watched its unclassified network deteriorate past its own programme's start point cannot easily argue the deterioration took it by surprise.
155,452 Potholes in Five Years
The scale of reactive repair tells you how many potholes this network produces — and the trend is sharply upwards
| Year | Estimated pothole repairs | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 26,037 | ~71 |
| 2021/22 | 26,560 | ~73 |
| 2022/23 | 26,195 | ~72 |
| 2023/24 | 37,854 | ~104 |
| 2024/25 | 38,806 | ~106 |
| Five-year total | 155,452 | ~85 |
A 46% Step Change in 2023/24
Repairs ran at a steady ~26,000 a year for three years, then jumped 46% in 2023/24 and stayed there. A network producing well over a hundred pothole repairs a day is, by definition, a network where defects routinely form between inspections — exactly the scenario where prior reports and photographic evidence decide claims.
The Backlog Admission
The council's own explanation for the jump: "In 2023/24 we allocated additional funding to address more carriageway defects. It was directed towards lower priority defects that did not meet assessment criteria for an urgent Cat1 pothole repair." In plain terms: there was a known backlog of sub-urgent defects sitting on the network — large enough to need its own funding line.
The "Evolved Roads" Admission
The council's own explanation for the U-road collapse — in its own words
"The increase in the score for the number of unclassified roads requiring treatment in 2023/24 was due to the weather which has significant impacts on the road network. Extreme heat, cold, precipitation has significantly damaged the unclassified road network."
— Hertfordshire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report, June 2025
"Much of the unclassified road network is referred to as 'evolved' where it could have been a historic track that has been made up over a number of years, rather than being a 'designed' road. The foundations of undesigned roads are much more susceptible to damage if moisture is allowed to penetrate through the surface."
— Hertfordshire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report, June 2025
"Changes in our weather patterns are producing more extreme peaks and prolonged periods of high temperature, wet weather and other factors that can contribute to and accelerate carriageway deterioration. The composition of many of our carriageways was not designed to cope with these conditions."
— Hertfordshire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report, June 2025
What These Admissions Mean
Hertfordshire formally acknowledges that a large part of its unclassified network sits on undesigned foundations that fail faster when water gets in, and that today's weather is accelerating deterioration across the carriageway stock generally.
Knowledge of accelerated, weather-driven deterioration on a known-vulnerable road class raises the standard for what a "reasonable" inspection and repair regime looks like on those roads under Section 58 — particularly after wet or freezing spells, when potholes form fastest.
Questions Worth Asking
- • Was your road one of the "evolved" undesigned roads the council describes?
- • Did inspection frequency increase after the severe weather the council blames?
- • If the network was known to be "significantly damaged" in 2023/24, why wasn't your defect caught?
- • Weather explains deterioration — it doesn't excuse leaving a reported defect unrepaired.
The 1-to-4-Week Repair Window
Hertfordshire's repair commitments are genuinely better than many councils' — but read the small print
"In Hertfordshire we aim to carry out a permanent repair to urgent potholes, cutting out the defective material and replacing with new within 1 to 4 weeks of the defect being identified, rather than carrying out a temporary fix that may need repeating. Over 90% of our urgent potholes are fixed with a first-time repair using hot material."
— Hertfordshire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report, June 2025
The Good Faith Reading
First-time permanent repairs with hot material are best practice — temporary cold-fill patches that crumble within months are a common failure mode elsewhere. If Hertfordshire genuinely fixes 90% of urgent potholes permanently first time, that's a real strength, and you should expect the council to document it in any Section 58 defence.
The Small Print
Everything in that commitment hinges on the words "urgent" and "identified". The report says repairs are prioritised by risk assessment, and that "a shallow pothole on low use rural road will not be such a high priority as a deeper pothole on a main A road."
A defect that hasn't been identified gets no clock at all. A defect assessed below the urgent Cat1 threshold joins the lower-priority queue — the same queue that built up a backlog big enough to need additional funding in 2023/24. And even an identified urgent pothole can lawfully sit in the carriageway for up to four weeks. If your incident falls in any of those gaps, the repair policy doesn't defeat your claim — it frames it.
Claiming Against a Well-Funded AMBER Council
Honest assessment: Hertfordshire runs a serious asset-management operation — here's how that changes your approach
What Works In The Council's Favour
- ✓ GREEN spend scorecard — spent £85.2m capital against a £25.7m DfT allocation in 2024/25
- ✓ Surveys every road class annually, including all 3,244km of unclassified roads
- ✓ Over 90% of urgent potholes get a first-time permanent hot-material repair
- ✓ A-road condition stable across six years of machine surveys
- ✓ Documented deterioration modelling and lifecycle planning — roughly 70% of treated area is preventative
Expect a well-documented Section 58 defence with inspection records and risk assessments. Generic claims will struggle here.
What Works In Yours
- ✗ AMBER condition and AMBER best practice on the DfT scorecard — not just condition
- ✗ RED B roads more than doubled in a year (3.2% → 7.0% in 2024/25)
- ✗ 18% of U roads RED in 2023/24 — worse than before the £29m improvement programme
- ✗ 64% of the network relies on "subjective" visual inspections, by the council's own description
- ✗ 155,452 potholes filled in five years — up 49% and still climbing
- ✗ Admitted backlog of sub-urgent defects and admitted weather damage to "evolved" undesigned roads
The Winning Strategy Here Is Specificity
Against a council with a GREEN spend record and a professional asset-management operation, your claim lives or dies on the specific defect:
- • Prior reports of the same pothole (FixMyStreet, council fault reports) — proof of actual notice
- • Photos showing size, depth and visible age (weathered edges, previous patching, standing water)
- • The road's class — on a B road or unclassified road, the council's own 2024/25 condition data documents the decline
- • Timing — a defect after a wet or freezing spell engages the council's own admission that weather is accelerating deterioration
- • The repair-window question — was your pothole identified, how was it risk-assessed, and where was it in the queue?
Mac builds exactly this case: he searches for prior reports, assesses your photo evidence, and cites Hertfordshire's own transparency data where it helps you.
Hit a Pothole in Hertfordshire?
A well-run council demands a well-built claim. £35 for a professional claim pack.
DIY Claim
- • Submit photos and invoices
- • Use generic template letter
- • No B-road decline data cited
- • No prior-report search
- • No repair-window analysis
Professional Claim Pack
- ✅ B-road RED doubling documented
- ✅ 18% U-road figure and missed £29m target cited
- ✅ 155,452 repairs in five years argued
- ✅ Prior reports searched and attached
- ✅ Section 58 rebuttal tailored to Hertfordshire
No percentage fees. You keep 100% of any compensation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hertfordshire spends three times its DfT allocation — can I still claim?
Yes. The DfT Spend scorecard is GREEN — Hertfordshire spent £85.2m of capital in 2024/25 against a £25.7m DfT allocation. But the overall rating is AMBER because of road condition: RED-condition B roads more than doubled in a year and 18% of unclassified roads needed maintenance at the last published survey. Section 58 turns on whether the specific defect that damaged your vehicle was reasonably inspected and repaired, not on aggregate spending.
What if my pothole was on an unclassified or residential road?
Unclassified roads make up 3,244km — nearly two-thirds of the Hertfordshire network. At the last published survey (2023/24), 18% were in the RED category, the worst figure since 2016/17 and worse than the 16% start point of the council's own £29m five-year improvement programme. The council also notes U-road figures come from "a more subjective visual inspection" rather than machine surveys.
RED-condition B roads doubled in a year — what does that mean for my claim?
In 2024/25, B roads in the RED category jumped from 3.2% to 7.0% — the worst figure in the six years of published data — while B roads in good condition fell from 74.4% to 62.0%. If your pothole was on a B road, the council's own machine-survey data documents rapid, recent deterioration across that road class, which is directly relevant to whether its maintenance response was reasonable.
Hertfordshire says it fixes urgent potholes within 1 to 4 weeks — does that defeat my claim?
No. That commitment applies only to defects already identified and risk-assessed as urgent Category 1 potholes. The real questions are whether your pothole was identified at all before your incident, whether it was risk-assessed correctly, and how long it sat below the "urgent" threshold. The council's own report says a shallow pothole on a low-use rural road "will not be such a high priority" — and lower-priority defects built up such a backlog that extra funding was allocated in 2023/24 to deal with them.
Does the "evolved roads" weather admission help my claim?
Yes. Hertfordshire's transparency report states that much of its unclassified network is "evolved" — historic tracks made up over the years rather than designed roads — and that "the foundations of undesigned roads are much more susceptible to damage if moisture is allowed to penetrate through the surface." That is documented knowledge that a known class of roads deteriorates faster, which raises the bar for what a reasonable inspection and repair regime looks like on those roads under Section 58.
Why did pothole repairs jump 49% in five years?
Hertfordshire filled 26,037 potholes in 2020/21 and 38,806 in 2024/25 — a 49% increase, averaging 106 repairs every day in the latest year. The council explains part of the jump itself: in 2023/24 it "allocated additional funding to address more carriageway defects... directed towards lower priority defects that did not meet assessment criteria for an urgent Cat1 pothole repair". In plain terms: there was a known backlog of sub-urgent defects on the network large enough to need its own funding line.
Data sources: Department for Transport — Local Road Maintenance Ratings 2025 to 2026 | Hertfordshire County Council Local Highways Maintenance Transparency Report (June 2025). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.