CRITICS are calling for a radical shake-up in the way Hertfordshire's roads are repaired and maintained.

In April 2003, the county council created a new organisation to manage roads Hertfordshire Highways, a three-sided co-operation with consultants Mouchel Parkman and contractors Amey Lafarge.

But according to Liberal Democrat councillors, the new set-up is failing to repair roads efficiently.

They blame it for the escalating barrage of complaints from the public about pot-holes, and for failing to keep control of costs.

St Albans councillor Rob Prowse said: "This is not good enough.

"It is really not surprising that we see an overspend on the reconstruction of St Peter's Street of over £3 million.

"Herts Highways is out of control and changes need to be made."

His fellow St Albans Lib Dem Chris White said: "It is a failed experiment.

"The quality of the network is nowhere near good enough.

"There are constantly complaints about holes being filled in a ham-fisted way.

"My post-bag is full of complaints about poor workmanship.

"We need to find a better way of doing things."

He argued that the two partner companies, Mouchel and Amey Lafarge, lacked incentives to do a good job as the county council could not award work to other contractors.

The Conservative-controlled authority admitted last week that nearly half of road repair schemes had gone more than ten per cent over budget, and 30 per cent were completed late.

Councillor Stuart Pile, the responsible cabinet member, admitted there had been problems, but insisted the basic structure was sound and Hertfordshire Highways had produced budget savings of more than £2 million since it started.

He said: "The partnership is working very well at certain levels, but I am not certain it is all the way up the structure.

"We complete many more schemes than anywhere else in the country."

He said both Mouchel and Amey Lafarge had suffered from a high turnover of staff, but this problem was now in the past and he had complete confidence in the firms.

Councillor Pile is due to meet Hertfordshire Highways' new boss Vince Gilbert this week to discuss the way forward.

He said there had recently been too much emphasis on repairing A roads and the organisation was considering a major push, costing around £100 million over several years, to bring the county's minor roads up to scratch.

Councillor Pile promised an independent inquiry into the original estimates for the St Peter's Street work, but promised that although they had been wrong, the budgets would not be exceeded.