Have you noticed an increase in number of potholes in Hitchin? Well, Herts County Council is blaming winter weather.

Hertfordshire County Council is encouraging residents to report potholes on the road network, following a big increase in the number of potholes appearing as a result of recent snow and ice, followed by cold and wet weather.

Cllr Phil Bibby, Executive Member for Highways and Transport, said: "We know the condition of our roads matters to residents, and it matters to us to. I want to reassure people that, while we can't control the cold and wet weather that causes these potholes to form, we are working hard to prioritise and fix them.

Over recent years the general condition of the county's roads has improved significantly as a result of extra investment in a resurfacing programme targeting local residential roads. However, a cold and wet winter is always going to be a challenge."

The key reason why potholes form is a repeated fluctuations in road surface temperature to below and above freezing. The result is the freeze and thaw process; a repeated process where rain water within the road surface expands by almost 10% when frozen, melts back down when the temperature rises to fill the cracks formed by the expansion and then re-freezes as the temperature drops to expand again, creating further cracks on the road surface.

The more the freeze and thaw process is repeated, the more damage is caused to the road surface, with wet weather causing additional problems by washing away the loose surface materials

The council is encouraging road users to report potholes online at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/highwayfaults so that they can be added to the repair and maintenance programme.

Hertfordshire county council maintain 3,200 miles of roads, carrying out more than 1,500 maintenance and improvement schemes as well as fixing more than 21,000 potholes in an average year.

The council say their highways team aim to make the most significant potholes safe within 24 hours, but the majority of potholes that are big enough to need rapid attention receive a permanent repair either within five days or within 20 days, depending on factors like the size of the pothole and how busy the road is.

Smaller, less urgent, potholes are repaired as part of planned road resurfacing.

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