Over £7m could be cut from the county council’s highways budget in the next five years according to a shock announcement from the Government, reported to the county council’s Highways Panel this week.

The Government has already announced it will give Herts County Council £500,000 less for each of the next 5 years.

Now it says it will receive at least £2.5m over the next five. On top of that a further £4.6m at least will be cut if the county council does not meet performance targets set by the Department for Transport.

Liberal Democrat Leader and Highways spokesperson Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst said: ‘This is shocking news and comes when Herts County Council has a massive maintenance back log that will take almost 80 years to clear and a contractor that has been fined for poor performance.

‘Cuts of this size will affect our infrastructure and economic development and I am concerned that the Conservatives at county hall are just rolling over and accepting these cuts to our funding.  At the Highways Panel they dismissed my idea that we should protest at these cuts – cuts that a fully Conservative Government is bringing in.’