Michael Fletcher, of Ivybridge, writes:

I refer to BBC TV Spotlight news on the evening January 14, regarding potholes on Devon County Council roads and parish lanes.

I was amazed by the absurd comments by the county council's head of highways, David Whitton, regarding the condition of the roads and lanes.

I quote: 'It is a consequence of traffic volume and age of the network.'

Are we taxpayers expected congratulate him for his apparent recent awareness of these two blindingly obvious facts?

He then went on to say: 'It's not our fault, it's our job to try and fix it.'

Well whose fault is it and does he seriously believe trying will fix the problem.

It is utterly pointless for the county council to engage in that local government behavior of passing the buck to national Government.

Of his council's own admission it receives £35m per year from central Government along with an unspecified amount from council tax revenues.

A rough calculation would indicate to me that, on Whitehall funds alone, £8,000 per mile is available. Given say 60 per cent of the Devon road system does not need immediate repair, that approximates to £11,000 per mile per year.

We were lead to believe from Dorset County Council that it is responding positively and with a repair program that includes 'every team repairing':

l Filling in potholes

l Pavements

l Cats eyes

l Footpaths

l Signs

l Collapsed roads and bridges.

I noted from the Spotlight feature that Dorset County Council uses mechanical aids to achieve greater productivity and output so far as potholes are concerned.

Perhaps Devon should reassess its governance priorities and utilise cash reserves – £52.2m cash and cash equivalents 2011/12 – to make capital investments to support greater productivity underpinned by effective and efficient use of time and current account funds.

The fact of the matter is, and I have written to Mr Whitton and to his recent predecessor Lester Wilmington to this effect, since 2007, the county council's problems are poor management not lack of funds.