Five Labour MPs have written to the leader of Hertfordshire County Council calling for "tangible improvement" in fixing potholes and maintaining roads.

The MPs said they are "disappointed" that the county council received an amber rating in a new government traffic light rating system assessing the authority's highways performance.

Josh Dean (Hertford and Stortford), Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire), Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage), David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) and Matt Turmaine (Watford) all signed the letter to Cllr Steve Jarvis, who leads a Liberal Democrat minority administration at the county council. 

The letter reads: "The Chancellor has doubled the annual roads budget and is backing local authorities with a record £7.3bn multi-year funding settlement, including £180,402,000 for Hertfordshire County Council.

"We are providing the long-term certainty that councils have requested for years, enabling a shift away from expensive reactive repairs towards proper preventative maintenance.

"Whilst the Government is doing its part, money is only part of the solution.

"We also need effective local management, and we were disappointed to see that Hertfordshire County Council has only been given an amber rating for its overall performance.

"We expect the record funding delivered by this Government to be used effectively, and we will be monitoring progress closely.

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"Our constituents expect and deserve a better service, and we look forward to seeing a tangible improvement in performance so that residents can once again take pride in the places they call home."

The MPs also called for the county council to accept additional "support" being offered by the government, including peer reviews from "experienced professionals".

The Government's new ratings system grades councils as red, amber or green and takes into consideration the current condition of roads and how effectively authorities are using their funds to fix potholes and improve long-term maintenance.

The vast majority of local authorities – 125 out of 154 – received an amber rating, while 16 received a green rating and 13 received a red rating. Hertfordshire was given an amber score for "condition" and "wider best practice", but received a green rating on the "spend" scorecard.

Cllr Jarvis said that Government funding for road maintenance in Hertfordshire has increased by 3%, "below the rate of inflation".

He continued: "The total increase in Government roads maintenance funding of around £12m over the next three years needs to be set against the cuts of nearly £42m in other Government grants.

"But we are committed to making improvements in the state of Hertfordshire's roads despite the government cutting our overall funding.

"We know that there is a need to improve the state of Hertfordshire's roads and that is one of the things we have been working on since the new Liberal Democrat administration took over in May.

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"We have fixed hundreds of extra potholes in our trials of new ways of doing this that we now plan to roll out more widely.

"We are also working to ensure that we are fixing the roads that matter most and increasing the proportion of the highways budget that gets spent on road repairs."