I write in response to Friday’s Oxford Mail lead story, about the local council using chippings to repair the city and the county’s roads.

This is, and has, been the custom for many years, and it’s about time it was stopped.

The motorist is used to plough this stuff into the surface, during which he suffers damage to tyres and to paintwork through other vehicles spreading the chippings everywhere.

If you stood on the side of the road and threw handfuls of chippings over passing vehicles you would rightfully face prosecution.

Stop this legalised vandalism now.

Ken Roper, Oxford