Ringway only took over the £35m-a-year contract from Amey/Lafarge last October.

But local Liberal Democrat councillors have led the criticism of Ringway’s performance which led to the firm being issued with an Early Warning Notice last month.

Ringway bosses will be appearing before a full council meeting later this month to outline what improvements they have made.

The firm has already boosted the number of road gangs by 50%.

Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst said,“Frankly I am saddened and dismayed, but also angry, that Hertfordshire residents have been so badly let down by a major multi-national company.

“Their failures to fix basic road faults, communicate with councillors and residents, clear our drains or fix our lights is not good enough.”

Ringway fought off competition from Amey and May Gurney to land the deal.

Ringway regional director Jerry Pert told the Hertfordshire Mercury: “Although the contract has not been achieving the service delivery targets in certain areas, namely street lighting and fixing short-term defects, in other areas it has been performing well, such as providing a robust winter service.”

He blamed the volume of reported defects, recent bad weather, integrating the IT systems and a general settling in period for the failures.