Potholes are a never-ending problem facing millions of road users and council chiefs alike every year.

So the Watford Observer went behind the scenes at Hertfordshire County Council’s Kings Langley depot last week to find out how they handle those all-important repairs.

Despite streams of criticism about delays with pothole repairs, or poorly executed jobs, particularly over the winter months, Cabinet Member for Hertfordshire Highways, Terry Douris, and Ringway Hertfordshire Service Development Manager, Rob Payne, are proud of their pothole repair teams.

Councillor Douris said: ""Hertfordshire is a big county. It has a whole series of challenges, not least of which are the various types of road that we have, the density of traffic that we have, the importance of many of the roads in Hertfordshire, and we also have to work within the budgets that we have.

"I think that whilst we don’t always get it right every time, we get it right on the vast majority of the time."

On average, just over 40 potholes come in to the county council per working day, and in terms of cost, the council’s £70 million road maintenance budget last year covered all aspects of road works, from potholes to cleaning gullies.

They were also granted £2.2 million from the national pothole repair fund and £3.7 million earlier this year to help repair flood-related damage.

According to the county council, all potholes will be fixed at some point, but the depth, size and where it is on the road network defines the priority and therefore the speed of response required.

Mr Payne said: "It’s called the Defect Management Approach. So, for example, if you’re talking about the A414, you’ve got a busier road and we get to those quicker than we would do for a residential road."

Just over 10,000 potholes are dealt with annually across Hertfordshire, and of those, 43 per cent are responded to within 24 hours, 41 per cent within seven days and 16 per cent within 14 days.

However Councillor Douris said there were occasions when repairs did not go to plan.

He said: "There are occasions when things will conspire against you.

"For example, you’ll set up a work patch, but then suddenly something will happen, and you find that the best laid plans go out the window. "People will say, ‘why have you delayed that’, but they haven’t realised there’s something 200-300-400 yards down the road, and if you leave both jobs running at the same time, total chaos will be caused."

Councillor Douris and Mr Payne went on to explain the difference between Hertfordshire’s roads and others in the UK, and the impact this has on potholes.

Mr Payne said: "Hertfordshire and Surrey take the highest traffic load after London because of the M25 corridors, and this creates higher damage volume."

Councillor Douris added: "Interestingly, assuming there’s a bit of the M11 in Hertfordshire, we’re the only local authority with four motorways.

"Every single person has an involvement with a road every single day.

"Even though they may not leave their house or be in hospital they still have an involvement, because the bus they might go on will go along the road or the Royal Mail man will go along the road.

"Our principle concern is that the people who use are roads are as safe as possible."