I am writing regarding the recent news items and letters concerning damaged roads and lack of funds for repair. I would like to ask the relevant council officer how the Oxfordshire County Council monitors the quality and durability of road repairs carried out by its contractors?

Last year, I reported two sections of road in Wantage that were showing signs of breaking up within, what I believe to be, the two-year warranty period on road repairs.

The council responded with an email to the effect that an inspection had been carried out and no action was considered necessary. Since then both sections of road have deteriorated much further and have reached a condition that I consider very poor for rebuilding work that is now still less than three years old.

If the highways department is so short of money, and I have no reason to doubt this, why is the quality of the work that is carried out not monitored more closely and the contractors called back to make good where necessary?

If the warranty period is not the two years that I believe it to be, what is it?

I would very much appreciate answers in your pages from County Hall to these questions, as, I imagine, would many other council taxpayers.

Alan Smith, Garston Close, Wantage