DORSET County Council may well blame the weather for the bad state of the roads but that is only part of the problem. Most of us are intelligent and observant enough to understand that the reason the exceptional weather conditions have had such drastic effects on the road surfaces is because of the previous lack of preventative maintenance.

When potholes are reported, instead of sending out the repair gang to deal with the defect(s), a highways inspector visits the site(s) with a can of aerosol spray paint, assesses the condition of the pothole and if thought to be bad enough will mark it out so that usually, after a number of days, or more likely weeks, some remedial action may be taken. Those potholes that do not make the grade, even if in the immediate vicinity, will be ignored until they deteriorate further and become more dangerous to road users and/or more damaging to vehicles.

Often, by the time the originally-reported potholes receive the necessary attention those that did not make the grade have become worse, will require a greater amount of material to repair, together with more time and more labour; but before that stage has been reached the whole reporting process usually has to be repeated, necessitating further inspection visits, wasted time, labour and fuel, as well as additional attendances by the repair gangs to the same nearby sites or areas – and so it goes on. It may be an efficient way of creating work but I cannot see that it is a very efficient or effective method of operating and it sure must waste a terrific amount of public money. In addition, most of the repairs are unsatisfactory, lasting only a relatively short time and so appear to be another example of taxpayers’ money not being very well spent.

ROBERT TUCK, Pardy’s Hill, Corfe Mullen