Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats have branded a county council move to defer more than 40 road repairs in St Albans and Harpenden a "disgrace and scandal".

Stephen Giles-Medhurst’s comments come after Hertfordshire County Council said they will be postponing at least 142 road repair schemes in the county totalling £3 million, due to the bad weather.

In Colney Heath, footway reconstruction work at Colney Heath Lane and Smallford Lane has been deferred and in St Albans road resurfacing at Victoria Street and Breadcroft Lane has been delayed.

Leader of Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats on the county council, Stephen Giles-Medhurst said: "Officers have secretly cancelled 142 schemes without first discussing it with elected councillor.

"Frankly this is nothing short of a disgrace and scandal as well as mismanagement at the most senior level. 

"For this problem of an overspend of this size to come to light now, just six months into the year smacks of insufficient financial and audit controls. These works had been listed as on the cards to do and costed at least 12 months ago."

More than £20 million worth of highway maintenance schemes have been delivered by the county council since April 2014.

Councillor Giles-Medhurst added: "Pushing this work into next year, which is now being promised, will have a knock on effect of postponing other schemes already planned for the 2015/16 year- and lists for those have already been circulated. 

"If the winter is bad it may mean that these roads due to resurfaced now and being cancelled will require more work and expense."

The county council said additional pressures have meant that more money has had to be spent in some areas than originally planned - including additional costs from the severe weather experienced during the winter months, a number of unplanned repairs to roads, bridges, embankments and sinkholes, and the need for additional work on programmed schemes where the road condition had worsened significantly over the winter. 

A midyear review of the budget highlighted this additional spend, which means that some schemes planned for this year may now have to be deferred to next year so that the available budget is not overspent. 

Terry Douris, cabinet member for highways at the county council, said: "The severe weather we’ve experienced during the last few winters has really taken its toll on Hertfordshire’s roads. 

"While we were successful in bidding for additional government funding last year, and the county council itself invested extra money, it’s still not enough to cover the remaining schemes that we had planned to deliver this year. 

"As a result we’ve reached a point where we have had to defer the majority of the remaining maintenance schemes on the 2014/15 programme in order to avoid a significant overspend on the budget. 

"The deferred schemes have been added to next year’s work programme, however, we are looking to see if there is any possibility of delivering any of the remaining schemes this year."

Of the 142 deferred schemes, 108 are micro-surfacing schemes and due to weather constraints, it will not be possible to reinstate these in to this year’s programme. 

Terry Douris added: "I appreciate this news will come as a disappointment to those residents and road users in the areas affected and for this I apologise. The remaining schemes have added to next year’s work programme, and in the mean time we are doing all we can to see if it’s possible that any can be delivered this year."