TWO years after a concerned resident complained about a dangerous stretch of footpath near his home, he is still waiting for it to be repaired. Howard Green, 70, of Jennings Road, St Albans, has the letter from Herts Highways dated June 2008 saying the re

TWO years after a concerned resident complained about a dangerous stretch of footpath near his home, he is still waiting for it to be repaired.

Howard Green, 70, of Jennings Road, St Albans, has the letter from Herts Highways dated June 2008 saying the repairs would be carried out over the summer with any immediate trip hazards "rectified within the next two days."

Mr Green said: "Someone did come out and mark the areas to be repaired but that was it.

"A lot of older people live in this road and the broken paving slabs are quite uneven. If someone has a fall they could break their hip."

The problems started when neighbours had building work carried out on their homes and contractors could have damaged the paving slabs with their vehicles.

The Herts Highways letter agreed that the slabs were uneven in places and some were broken but pointed out that although contractors might have caused the damage, it would be difficult to prove and reclaim the cost of the repairs.

A spokesman for Herts Highways said this week that engineers had visited the site promptly at the time but judged the area - despite the broken slabs - to be safe so no action was taken.

But now other works in the area had been identified, it was intended to repair the path during the coming year.

n Another local resident has drawn attention to money wasted by the county council when it resurfaced a Harpenden Road.

Robert Bright said that Crabtree Lane had been resurfaced from top to bottom but after it had been completed for only a short time builders had dug it up repeatedly, leaving patches on the road which left it nearly as bad as it was before.

"Knowing about these new houses going up, could not the council and the builders get together and renew the road when the builders were finished?"

The Herts Highways spokesman said service and utility firms were allowed to carry out works on the highway when necessary but the council liaised with the various companies to avoid the possibility of newly-resurfaced roads being dug up again.

But he added it was impossible to guarantee that would not happen as the companies might need to carry out emergency works or make connections to new properties: "In this case, we understand that there had been a gas leak and a number of excavations were necessary to establish the source.