LAST July, near Jodrell Bank, I drove into a pothole obscured by puddles, and sustained a puncture and wheel rim damage.

The total cost to me was £210, and no relief expected from my insurer because of the excess term in the contract. I sent details to Cheshire East Council, and in September I received a reply from Top Mark Claims Management Ltd of Glasgow on behalf of the council.

They realised I would not go to court over a claim for £210.

Their letter stated: “Our client operates a system of regular safety inspections for all footways and highways, and we would advise that the area where your accident occurred is inspected twice per annum, with any defects of a size that warrant immediate action, being repaired”.

Now more than six months later I drove along the same lane near Jodrell Bank.

There was no sign of any remedial work to the pothole.

This particular thoroughfare is still in a bad way, but still in better shape than the lanes in my own village, which would not look out of place in a Third World country.

My plea to the council as a taxpayer is that they abandon any plans to update the ugly red signs on the road side, as a supposed deterrent, and shed any further notions they may have of golden handshakes to their executives, and apply our money instead to making the roads safer.

JOHN BURKE Lower Peover