A few years ago, Oxford Road in Horspath flooded and a resident fed up with excuses from the council took it upon himself to go down there with a shovel and clear the road gullies.

This allowed the water to enter the ditch and, as if by magic, the road was clear of water in 20 minutes or so.

He then wrote to the county council highways and told them what he had done and what they needed to do to prevent future flooding.

The answer he got back was to say thank you but due to the lack of money there was nothing they could do. However, within a year they spent more than £300,000 building a new footpath along the road and did nothing about the flooding.

This week, all these years later, the road is closed again, because of ice on the flooded road.

Again, that same resident with his shovel cleared the gullies, which took all of 10 minutes, and – hey presto – the road was cleared. A short time later a man from the council arrived with a shovel. Minutes later a car arrived with flashing lights and out jumped another man from the council.

The primary cause of the problem (a blocked pipe where the ditch passes under the entrance to a field) was pointed out to him.

Councillor Rodney Rose was on the radio this week talking about this problem, so it will be very interesting to see how long it takes to resolve it.

It is probably cheaper, however, for them to leave well alone and hope that a resident with a shovel does the job for them.

Keith Brooks, Gateley, Horspath