WEEKS after the worst of the winter weather, potholes are continuing to plague angry residents. One of them, Roderick Douglas, of Old Sopwell Gardens, St Albans, complained this week that there were more potholes than roads in and around City Station wi

WEEKS after the worst of the winter weather, potholes are continuing to plague angry residents.

One of them, Roderick Douglas, of Old Sopwell Gardens, St Albans, complained this week that there were "more potholes than roads" in and around City Station with Stanhope Road particularly bad.

He said: "Is it too much to ask that these potentially life-threatening holes are fixed permanently?"

Other roads which have been singled out because of their appalling state are Worley Road and Gombards in St Albans and Milton Road in Harpenden.

St Albans district councillor Michael Green, whose ward takes in St Albans City Station, said the roads around there had been bad for a long time.

He said: "It's too easy to blame all this on a couple of cold snaps. I'm afraid the chickens are coming home to roost over years of inadequate road maintenance."

A spokesperson for Herts Highways said: "Stanhope Road, Worley Road and Gombards will all have the hazardous potholes repaired under the emergency repairs programme.

"I can't say at this stage whether they are on the programme for fuller repair work for next financial year as that is still being worked up at the moment.

"We will carry out emergency repairs on all roads which are assessed and found to have hazardous defects as quickly as possible."

She explained that there were normally around two or three teams repairing potholes in the St Albans district but at present 13 teams were working at patching and filling in holes.

Roads requiring repairs were prioritised based on the volume of traffic using them, the speed of traffic and the extent of the damage. Permanent repairs on main roads were being coordinated into larger programmes of repair work which had started but would take several months to complete.