INCREASED pressure is to be placed on the county council to resolve delays in adopting roads in the St Albans district. St Albans district council s cabinet has accused the county council of being too relaxed over the issue of unadopted roads. At a meet

INCREASED pressure is to be placed on the county council to resolve delays in adopting roads in the St Albans district.

St Albans district council's cabinet has accused the county council of being "too relaxed" over the issue of unadopted roads.

At a meeting last Tuesday, leader of the council Cllr Robert Donald determined to "up the pressure" on HCC to take care of the 200 or so roads in the district which are currently unadopted.

Because the county council is responsible for the adoption of roads, hundreds of council tax-paying local residents are missing out on services such as street lighting repairs, street cleaning and drainage services.

At the meeting district councillor for Redbourn Tony Swendell said that he was very frustrated by the problem of which there are several examples in the village.

He said: "I have been working tirelessly to try and get our roads adopted because there are such major disadvantages of living in an unadopted road. The sewers are not even maintained - it is a disgrace."

The situation has been made worse by the arrival of Housing Information Packs (HIPs), which means people living in unadopted roads find it particularly difficult to sell their properties.

An added problem is the fact that developers who have built new estates sometimes fail to apply to have them adopted, and even those who do must keep the roads and services up to scratch before the county council will adopt them.

Cllr Swendell, who accused HCC of "masking" the problem, and portfolio holder for environment and sustainability Geoff Churchard, will be attending a county council scrutiny panel meeting next month to try and resolve the issue.