Villagers have been told by a council they will have to pay more than £70,000 to repair potholes on the only access road to their homes and garages.

Whitebarns Lane in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, connects a main road to a cul-de-sac where many people live in social housing.

Resident Sarah Wright said villagers had been told it would cost £73,000 to repair the road where elderly people and schoolchildren were injured after a fall.

Hertfordshire County Council said he understood and sympathized with residents’ frustration, but said Whitebarns Lane had always been and remained a public footpath, not a road.

Ms Wright said Whitebarns Lane had never been adopted by the council, despite being the only access road to around 30 homes.

An adopted road is a private road that has been taken over by a local authority and is now maintained at public expense.

She said the situation was unique in Hertfordshire in that the cul-de-sac and main road had been adopted while the lane was not.

In 2016, the council told residents that bringing it to an adoptable level would cost them £73,000.

Ms Wright said some residents found it “scary” and some cried outside her door, saying they had no way of finding the money.

“It’s a question of money… if the council adopts it they will have to provide access roads, drainage and lighting, which I realize is expensive , but we need suitable access to the main highway,” she said.

She said elderly residents needed to be able to walk to church, the village hall, the local shop and the bus stop.

Ms Wright said the road would remain full of potholes until the council recognized its “moral responsibility”.

The condition of the road has been a problem for 60 years, and Ms Wright said every 20 years or so residents had to fight the council “for a service they should always have automatically received”.

Nearly 300 people signed a petition calling for the road to be improved.

The council said: “It would potentially be possible to adopt Whtebarns Lane as a public road, but only if the landowner, or residents living along the lane, were able to bring it to an acceptable standard.

“We have offered to contribute to the cost of the necessary work.

“In the meantime, we will continue to maintain Whitebarns Lane as a public footpath.”