Pothole funding won't stretch far enough due to surge in oil prices, say Herts Council
Petroleum is a key component in modern tarmac and road surfacing
Last updated 24th Mar 2026
Hertfordshire County Council says funding for potholes and road maintenance won't stretch as far as originally planned due to the surge in oil prices caused by war in the Middle East.
Petroleum is a key component in modern tarmac and road surfacing, which has recently seen a huge rise in price since conflict broke out between Iran, USA and Israel.
It also comes after a particularly wet winter, as Hertfordshire received 157% of its average rainfall between December and February.
This has caused significant damage to road surfaces and resulted in more potholes.
From 1 April, the county council is set to spend £30m on routine maintenance including fixing potholes, plus a further £107m on highways and transport infrastructure for 2026/27.
£37m of that funding comes from the Department for Transport (DfT).
The County Council’s Executive Member for Highways has written to the Department for Transport to ask ministers for urgent additional funding for pothole repairs.
Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst OBE says “We need double what we are spending at the moment”.
“It does mean, potentially, if there is no additional funding that we might have to adjust our programmes and our work. I'm hoping we won't have to do that because we are trialling methods of making our tarmac go further to cover more holes.
“But we're trying to do our best to make sure that we can eke out as much as we can with the resources we've got.”
The Cabinet Member for Highways also says the council won't be able to fix every pothole: “This is why you have a defect management approach. So, it's fair to say the small potholes which are just a few millimetres deep, probably won't be fixed.
“The deeper ones which cause issues for cyclists in particular, and obviously car drivers, will be fixed within 20 working days, but they do need to be 50-60mm deep and 300 mm wide.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “We are providing Hertfordshire County Council with over £180 million over the next four years to help them tackle potholes, and it’s now over to them to get on with maintaining and upgrading their roads.
“This is part of our record £7.3 billion funding for local roads across the next four years, and our new council rating system charts how well they are delivering for local people, including their long-term fixes rather than just patching up potholes."