Roads are the worst I've seen in 35 years

2:17pm Friday 4th July 2008

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HAVING driven over a pothole' in Penn Bottom back in February and suffered a cracked wheel rim and burst tyre which cost me £530, I naively thought I might receive some compensation from the relevant authority.

To my dismay, but not surprise, having jumped through various hoops and waited and waited, I simply received a curt letter from Buckinghamshire County Council in May 2008 stating: "The highway concerned is subject to regular inspections, in this case twice a year.

"The last inspection prior to your incident took place on the 19th December 2007 and revealed no defect.

"The defect seems therefore to have developed subsequent to this inspection."

That seems to be a very simple way of abdicating responsibility as the relevant authority for maintaining our roads. A twice-a-year inspection hardly seems to be adequate in view of the volume of traffic we suffer in South Bucks.

More to the point, the particular hole that damaged my car is still there and has actually increased in size by at least 50 per cent since I reported it.

Since the incident, I have taken greater notice of the state of the roads I drive on, purely to avoid having to pay out yet more money on repair bills!

My conclusion on the state of our roads is that they are in the worse state of repair that I have ever seen, in the 35 years I have lived in the area.

Just as an afterthought, the Bucks County Council notepaper that my letter of rejection was written on has the legend Investor in People' written on it.

That is fine but please would you start investing in our roads!

Derek Dickenson, Hill Avenue, Hazlemere