TODAY, I drove over to my firm's offices in Thame for a couple of meetings. During the first part of the journey, I was swerving around the potholes in the roads like a drunken man but, shortly after I crossed into Oxfordshire, it struck me that the problem had disappeared and that the roads were in a vastly better condition than Buckinghamshire’s.

I've read all the excuses from our council’s representatives about their lack of money and the exceptional conditions and so forth but, surely, the same constraints must face Oxfordshire CC and they seem to have done a much better job.

I am beginning to think that the problem is not really lack of finance at all, but poor resource allocation. And I do not lay all the blame for this on Councillor Letheren.

OK, she is the elected Cabinet Member with responsibility for transport, but I suspect that the real problem lies with the professional officers who, on recent showings, simply do not seem to be up to their jobs.

By the way, in answer to Bev Ormshaw (BFP, 29th January), I’ve driven a lot in Utah and Colorado during winter and their roads – even the freeways (motorways) – are actually in a shocking condition due to the snow and ice, so this isn’t just a UK problem; but they do have many more miles of roads to maintain!

James Cadle, Fox Lane, Holmer Green.