I rang the highways department of Oxfordshire County Council to notify them the pothole created by the leak from one of the Thames Water pipes had, for the second time, disintegrated, leaving a large dip on Stert Street in Abingdon.

There is a similar poor repair on Ock Street from another service company. Rather unhelpfully, I was advised that the problem needed to be reported to Thames Water and that the Highways were not responsible.

According to them, any repair carried out by the utility companies becomes the utility company’s ownership. They were not at all interested in getting a repair carried out or pursuing the utility companies concerned.

I would like to know why: l It is more my responsibility to report the pothole to Thames Water than it is the highways authority’s, who are meant to be maintaining our roads.

l Why the highways department seems to deem part of the road as belonging to the utility company – if all the utility companies dig up sections of the road it then becomes a tapestry of ownership!

l Why there are no regulations in force to get the utility companies back to repair potholes or, if there are, why these are not being enforced by the highways authorities.

l Why resources to which the tax payer has contributed are not being cared for by Government departments.

MR EVANS High Street Abingdon