Pothole-infested Watford street that featured on BBC Breakfast resurfaced

Hertfordshire County Council has completed resurfacing work in Park Road in Watford to the delight of councillors and residents.

BBC Breakfast visited Park Road in April this year as part of a wider story about the state of Britain's roads and increase in pothole-related breakdowns.

When the BBC paid a visit, the residential street was littered in potholes - Nascot county councillor Mark Watkin said it was "one of the worst he'd ever seen".

Nascot Hertfordshire county councillor Mark Watkin in Park Road before it was resurfaced. Credit: Watford Lib Dems

Cllr Watkin allocated funds from his highways locality budget to fix Park Road but he was told not to expect work to take place until at least October.

However, highway workers were in the area recently relaying the road surface, although Cllr Watkin says it should have been done sooner.

He said: "This road is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. It is a shame that it has taken a national TV broadcast for Hertfordshire County Council to finally get round to paying notice to Park Road, and the residents who have been calling on this stretch of highway to be resurfaced for so long.

"The road was sadly in a bad condition, I saw drivers swerving to try and avoid the holes several times. I estimate there were more than a dozen potholes scattered around the junction of Park Road and Church Road."

Some of the potholes at the junction of Park Road and Church Road earlier this year

The Liberal Democrat representative added: "It is dangerous. It needed to be repaired. If you are coming into the area, you do not want to see all the roads in a bad condition."

Data over the last three years or so has shown pothole reports in Hertfordshire are among the highest in the country – but the £35 million Hertfordshire County Council spent in the year 2019/20 on road repairs and works was only beaten by Oxfordshire.

The junction has now been resurfaced

A council spokesperson told the BBC in April: "In line with good practice, we operate a risk-based approach in dealing with potentially hazardous potholes on our roads.

"We aim to make the most significant potholes safe within 24 hours. The majority of potholes that are large enough to need rapid attention are subject to a first time 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.

"We’re currently achieving this more than 98 per cent of the time."