Council failure to deal with dangerous potholes

sir – I live in Surrey, where we suffer the dangers of potholes (Letters, May 6) on a day-to-day basis. These cause injury and death to road users, as well as damage to vehicles.

It is clear this is a countrywide problem, yet councils say they can’t afford to do anything of significance. People need to plead with their councils to act before even more injuries occur.

John Miles

Woking, Surrey

sir – My wife and I have just returned home from a most enjoyable week touring Pembrokeshire. As soon as you cross the border into Wales you can see the improvement in the road surface, and while we were driving from Solva, where we were staying, we discovered why.

There were reinstatement teams dealing with potholes and going about the task very professionally, not just throwing some tarmac on the hole and moving on to the next, as happens in my area. On the road from St Davids to Haverfordwest, the team used temporary traffic lights to close one side of the road and then, using first a jackhammer and then a circular saw, created a perfect square around the pothole. The decaying tarmac was removed from the hole and replaced with new, hot tarmac and then rolled to an even surface, before a seal was put around the edge.

All along the road there is evidence of the work they have done over the preceding months, which will last for years. Why can local councils in England not follow suit?

Lee Brown Mottram, Cheshire

sir – We have recently returned from Madeira, an island with fantastic road infrastructure. There are more than 200 tunnels, hundreds of bridges, viaducts – all with immaculate tarmac and not a pothole in sight.

Perhaps it is time for Britons to refuse to pay their road tax until our dangerous and costly pothole situation has been rectified.

Sue Crouch Stroud, Gloucestershire