Claims of a "catalogue of complaints" about roads in south west Hertfordshire has prompted calls for an all-party review of the county council's highways service.

Hertfordshire County Council rejected the motion condemning the record of the highway contractors employed by the authority since 2012 brought by Liberal Democrat councillors on Tuesday, March 22.

Opposition councillors said a string of ongoing problems have caused irritation across Watford, Three Rivers and the county and called for a review of the £40 million a year contract.

Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in Hertfordshire, said: "We are so fed up with the performance of the highways contractors and indeed the council itself.

"Potholes are not being filled in, street lights are being left on all day and off at night - often for months on end - and faults are being closed down before they have been fixed.

"It is a huge list of problems. Local taxpayers pay millions for this contractor to keep our highways repaired and operating."

Among the problems listed by the Liberal Democrats were a street light that has been on constantly for over a month in Bradshaw Road, wrecked guard rails at the junction of Lammas Road and Wiggenhall Road which were recorded as fixed on March 9 but have remained damaged at the roadside and ongoing problems with water under the road tarmac in Rickmansworth Road.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst said: "The Conservatives said performance is improving and the problems we outlined were 'marginal events' and 'insignificant'.

"Yet the council has revealed that at least 500 defects reported by residents have been closed without being fixed and more than 1,263 failures by Ringway have been recorded in just over a year resulting in fines of over £315,000.

"Frankly it's beyond me why the Conservatives still think this acceptable."

But Terry Douris, responsible for highways at Hertfordshire County Council, Ringway's shortcomings had a "disproportionate impact on its reputation".

He said: "We recognise that shortcomings in certain aspects of the highways service has a disproportionate impact on its reputation and public satisfaction but this needs to be put into the context of the contract to which Ringway operate, a contract which was considered at length prior to its award in 2012 and at which all parties, including the Liberal Democrats, were involved.

"We acknowledge that Ringway, and the council's other contractors should be judged solely against the terms of their respective contracts which, because of the financial constraints on the county council are not always as extensive as the public might wish.

"The performance of Ringway over the recent period has continued to perform against the targets set for them so that recent months have seen the highest level of performance against targets, indeed the repair of lighting issues is running at close on 100 per cent.

"Of course we hold them to account for their performance.

"I am however not at all complacent and we continue to make improvements to the way in which we communicate with residents through our fault reporting service and further customer service enhancements continue to be made.

"We believe that the best results will be achieved for the county by working with Ringway and our other contractors in a collaborative and positive way and not by using isolated incidents in an attempt to score political points."