IN almost every edition of the newspaper in recent years there has been a letter about potholes in the Knutsford area, which is of course part of Cheshire East.

In my view the maintenance of our roads in and around Knutsford is atrocious.

Cheshire East may claim to perform better than many other councils in this aspect of its responsibilities but if that is the case then Knutsford appears to be losing out to other towns and villages under its control.

There are, however, two important points to refer to your readers.

Firstly, if you are making a claim for pothole damage never give up.

A friend of mine was driving me home one day and his tyre was damaged by a pothole on Manchester Road.

Cheshire East’s response was to use solicitors to reply six times and generally to complicate matters thus protracting the dispute for over a year.

When my friend finally issued a claim in the small claims court he received an almost immediate offer of settlement by telephone which included payment of the court fees.

Secondly, Cheshire East has an excellent website to report potholes online.

Just Google ‘Cheshire East Potholes’.

There is an interactive map enabling you to pinpoint the pothole although it seems to work best by using a postcode.

Ideally, one should also upload a photograph of the pothole.

There is a facility enabling you to be kept advised of progress which works well.

Thus if everyone in Knutsford reports potholes or other damage near their home or place of work we may see an improvement in the state of our roads.

Of course, we would prefer a proper roads maintenance programme rather than just patch and mend, but we need to start somewhere.

For information, other issues such as blocked drains, parking, street lighting and many other issues can be reported using this facility.

Scott Martin Knutsford