Villagers are calling for action on a stretch of road which has been flooded since the turn of the year.

The junction of London Road and High Street in Barley, outside the Fox and Hounds pub, has been hit by flooding for two weeks, and has also been icing over.

Barley resident Nick White told the Crow he has made repeated calls to Hertfordshire County Council’s highways department, but the problem has yet to be resolved.

Mr White said: “I think we have got a drain over-flowing down there, because water is right across the road.

“I first noticed it the weekend after Christmas, and have rung the highways department about it five times since, but they haven’t been out yet.”

In August, a driver was seriously injured when his vehicle smashed into the front of the Fox and Hounds, destroying part of the pub’s front wall.

“It is quite dangerous, especially as it has frozen over a couple of times,” said Mr White.

“On Sunday morning the landlord of the Fox and Hounds was out putting ash on the road because it was completely frozen. No one wants to see another serious accident there, and he certainly doesn’t want another car going through the front of his pub.”

Matthew Kelley, divisional manager for Ringway, which manages road maintenance issues for the county council, said: “We have attended the site of the flooding on 30 December and 3, 7 and 11 January. The surrounding fields are saturated with water after the recent spate of bad weather causing runoff onto the carriageway at this point. We have checked that gulleys are clear on each inspection and have put in place measures to divert the flow into them gulleys, however there is a greater flow of water than they were designed to cope with. We have since attended the site on 12 January to hand salt the carriageway.”