A frustrated motorist has forced a council to fix three potholes roads after taking them to court using little-known legislation.
Derek Bennett, 68, took action after becoming fed up with the dire condition of streets in his home village of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire and nearby Hemel Hempstead.
He filed a notice under section 56 of the Highways Act 1980, which states that highways authorities must maintain roads at public expense.
After the county council failed to respond to the applications in the ‘proper manner’, the matter came before St Albans Crown Court – where Judge Andrew Johnson ordered the work to be completed within 20 working days.
He also awarded costs of £1,650 to the retired construction project manager for time he said he’s spent ‘faffing about’ on the cases.
Mr Bennett, who described the state of Britain’s roads as a ‘national disgrace’, told the Mail: ‘I’m doing this as a public service but I can’t over my own area, let alone the rest of the country.
‘I don’t know why we put up with this. It’s so easy to deal with. If everyone did it, we’d have lovely roads within six months.’
The roads that will now be repaired are the unclassified Ivy House Lane and the 40mph A4251 London Road, both in Berkhamsted, and the A4147 Redbourn Road in Hemel Hempstead.
Derek Bennett, 68, pictured outside St Albans Crown Court, took action after becoming fed up with the potholes in streets in his home village of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire and nearby Hemel Hempstead
Demands had been submitted for three other roads but they had been repaired by the time the case was heard yesterday.
Mr Bennett revealed he began investigating how to take action after becoming exasperated at the appalling roads he drives on.
‘It’s very interesting. The legislation goes back to Elizabeth I and it’s had various incarnations over the years. The latest is the Highways Act 1980,’ he said.
‘How it works is you simply write to the highways authority, naming the road and alleging it’s a public highway that must be maintained at public expense and that it is out of repair.
‘They’ve got one calendar month to respond. Hertfordshire County Council didn’t get back to me within the statutory period.’
The case came before Judge Johnson on Monday but was adjourned as the council’s barrister couldn’t say if work had been done on the roads in question.
It was rescheduled for yesterday when the judge said it had been established that Mr Bennett had served notice on the council, which admitted the roads were out of repair.
‘The judge said he’d never come across this. He didn’t realise it was their jurisdiction because they deal with rapists and murderers – and there I was talking about potholes,’ added Mr Bennett.
Unclassified road Ivy House Lane in Berkhamsted must be repaired by Hertfordshire County Council after a crown court judge backed Mr Bennett’s application
Also due for repair within 20 working days is the 40mph A4251 London Road in Berkhamsted
He has now filed submissions about other roads in the county and to the county councils in Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire, which he said can be heard either by magistrates or crown court judges, depending on the progress of the case.
‘The Highways Act says highways authorities have an absolute duty to maintain the highways at public expense,’ said Mr Bennett, who added the process was free.
How they would be able to afford the work when many are cash-strapped was a ‘political matter’, he added.
A Hertfordshire County Council spokesman said: ‘We’re disappointed that this routine maintenance issue has resulted in legal proceedings being issued.
‘We had already repaired three of these roads before this court hearing, and we have already scheduled repair work to the others.’
The repair bill to fix Britain’s pock-marked local roads has jumped to £18.6billion – up from £17billion last year, it emerged this week.
The annual Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) study also found town hall-maintained local roads are being resurfaced on average every 97 years, up from 93.
Almost half of local roads (49 per cent) in England and Wales are set to crumble and become unusable within 15 years, while one in six will do so within the next five years.
