Potholes plan

SIR, — An open letter to Cllr Stuart Pile, executive member for highways, transport and rural affairs, Hertfordshire County Council. I have recently returned from a holiday in a quiet mountainous region of Spain where the roads are incredibly smooth and g

SIR, - An open letter to Cllr Stuart Pile, executive member for highways, transport and rural affairs, Hertfordshire County Council.

I have recently returned from a holiday in a quiet mountainous region of Spain where the roads are incredibly smooth and generally in absolutely superb condition with barely a pothole to be found.

I have just returned to the lumps and bumps of pothole-crazed Hertfordshire to find an article in the Herts Advertiser (April 23) which says you defend the Herts Highways partnership claiming that its methods are praised by the Government. What do they know? They have already proven themselves totally incompetent on a wide range of matters, a bit like Herts Highways.

Let me tell you Mr Pile, the Herts Highways methods are NOT praised by residents (who, after all are the road users). I have a file of newspaper cuttings over an inch thick proving you are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

I previously invited you to inspect the roads of Harpenden with me via an open letter in the Herts Advertiser which you ignored. I now repeat that invitation - come and let me show you what an appalling job you and your "highways partnership" are doing.

You are quoted as saying that if "...a contractor does not deliver the required standard of workmanship, they are required to return and put things right at no cost to the council or taxpayer". Please advise when the contractor intends to return and resurface Dalkeith Road in Harpenden which is already disintegrating after a relatively recent complete resurface.

Come out of your ivory tower Mr Pile and see what is happening in the real world - the world of excessive waste and poor management - the roads of Hertfordshire.

PETER MANNELL,

Aldwickbury Crescent,

Harpenden.