ONCE again your newspaper highlights the appalling condition of local roads.

Sadly, even elevating the topic to your front page is unlikely to improve the situation.

It all boils down to money in the public purse which has many calls upon it. Whilst the roads of Cheshire – east and west – appear worse than most, the problem is in fact nationwide.

Whilst local councils are the target of criticism the real problem lies in the absence of ring-fenced funding for the maintenance of local roads.

When the money required for road maintenance is competing with other calls upon council funding (many of them arising from statutory obligations), there will always be the temptation to make do and mend – or patch up.

Currently, government at both local and national level celebrates the filling in of potholes instead of repairing the roads properly.

As your correspondents point out these temporary repairs require repeated attention as frequently the elements contrive to erode repairs remarkably quickly returning them to a hazardous condition.

In my own area the surface of Pepper Street and Chelford Lane leading from Chelford to Over Peover is in a perilous state, exposing vehicles to damaged suspension and placing cyclists in grave danger of serious injury.

Surely the time has come to remove responsibility for road maintenance from local councils and place it with a properly funded specialised agency which has no other calls upon it other than the maintenance of local roads.

The national Highways Agency appears to do a reasonable job with major roads so why shouldn’t a similar model work for the rest of the road network?

Perhaps a good starting point would be for local councils everywhere to face up to the reality that they are failing the public in this important accountability.

Instead of pretending they are doing a good job by filling in potholes they should be pressing for a proper solution.

Until such time as a radical solution is found I fear we are likely to see more of the same wasteful use of public funds directed at repeated ineffective road repairs leaving vehicle owners with hefty bills and other road users in fear for their personal safety.

J G Heselwood Over Peover