Potholes on a crucial road linking Bushey with Watford will not be repaired and resurfaced this year.
Water Lane is a popular link between the two areas and provides an alternative route to the often busy Bushey Arches. The road is currently full of potholes and had been dubbed by local residents as “pothole alley”.
Originally due to be resurfaced this current financial year, Bushey North councillor Laurence Brass and Central Watford and Oxhey councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst have now been told the works will not be until 2024/25.
Cllr Giles-Medhurst said: “Disappointment is an understatement; the road is in a dreadful mess, and I am getting regular complaints from both Bushey and Watford residents about it.
“It has traffic humps to slow traffic down but every one of these has potholes. It is not good enough.
Cllr Brass said: “Only this week, I reported six dangerous holes. This road is a good safer route to cycle to and from Bushey avoiding the Aches, but cyclists are rightly put off by how bad it is.”
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We’re pleased to confirm that Water Lane is likely to benefit from full resurfacing next year (2024/25). Our programme of major works for next year is still at the draft stage at the moment with our engineers determining the details of next year’s work, even as they are hard at work delivering this year’s programme of over a thousand maintenance and improvement schemes across the county, but we have taken the early decision to include Water Lane in that draft programme, recognising its condition and its importance in the local road network.
“Like many roads across the country, Water Lane suffered significantly during the last winter, which saw several extended periods of bad weather including snow, ice and flooding, all of which can take a significant and rapid toll on road surfaces. As a result, we had initially intended to carry out some targeted maintenance works on Water Lane this year to tackle the worst areas of the road. However, our team ultimately decided that it would be a better solution to do a complete resurfacing of the road by adding it to our main programme of works for next year.
“In the meantime, we will undertake some limited works this year to keep the road safe and serviceable and we will continue to inspect the road on a regular basis and fix any potentially hazardous defects as necessary.
“We encourage road users to report potholes, or any other defect, to us online at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/highwayfaults. This ensures that they are in our system and, even if we can’t repair them immediately, we can use the information to help us plan our maintenance programmes.”
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