IT comes as little surprise to me that roads in Trafford are plagued by potholes.

Having spoken to a highway maintenance engineer repairing a pothole, he said that refilling a pothole was basically a waste of time, because within a short time,traffic and weather would bring about the same problem.

The answer is a total resurfacing of the area, and of course, therein lies the problem. Trafford 'beancounters' have calculated that it is cheaper to allow potholes, and pay derisory compensation, than it is to do a proper job, and resurface the road. For some reason, however, this does not apply to Railway Street/Stamford New Road!

Looking at the figures for compensation, on average it is £300 per claim. Perhaps if the damages were made punitive,and ALL claims were allowed, as the damage could be avoided by proper road maintenance, and Trafford had to pay £3000 per claim, Trafford might think differently about their policy: we would then be talking of £250,000, rather than £9,483.08,less than was spent on a lump of stone.

If funding is a problem,perhaps it is time that the rating system was given an overhaul,so that rates gave a truer reflection of the area and volume of a property,rather than the number of bedrooms,and whether bathrooms were half or fully tiled.

With regard to the policy of cobblestones in Altrincham,looking at the sub-surface exposed on Railway Street, it is apparent that under the top 15cms. of asphalt, lies the original cobbles that provided the road surface.

The answer might have been to just strip off the top layers,and expose the original cobbles,creating a really original main street in Altrincham - a tribute to the skills of our predecessors.

Such a surface would also slow traffic as effectively as speed bumps.

David Olliver Altrincham