Herts Highways are under fire again – for ending the road repair season with 20% of planned works not carried out on the grounds it was too cold to continue, just as we had the hottest late September in a century.

Stephen Giles-Medhurst, the LibDem spokesperson on Highways and Transport, said ‘You don’t know whether to laugh or cry. We were recently told that the season for laying tar had finished because it was too cold. 20% of planned works were missed and damaged roads will have to wait till next spring. Yet the weather has been as hot as any time in the year. Clearly, the plans had no flexibility to allow for warm weather.

‘It’s just like the school caretaker who turns on the central heating on a fixed date, regardless of the temperature,’ continued Stephen. ‘We need to urgently review the way this work is planned, so that we don’t just stop on a fixed date and send everyone away. It’s not as if we can do without these road repairs – our roads and footpaths are crumbling!’