I was bemused by Councillor Lester’s statement on road surface dressing (Spending for better roads, September 5).

He reports “over 415,000 square metres of new surface laid.” Most normal people talk about linear features, such as roads, in terms of distance rather than area. Clearly, 415,000 is a large number, but I find it difficult to envisage what it actually looks like.

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Fortunately, some schoolboy arithmetic came to the rescue. A quick check of the C class road outside my home revealed it is approximately four metres wide. Therefore, a kilometre of road will be some 4,000 square metres of tarmac. Divide 415,000 square metres by 4,000 and it equals just 103.75 kilometres of highway.

Various online sources say that Herefordshire Council is responsible for “over 2,000 miles” of highway, which is more than 3,200 kilometres.

What are your thoughts?

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I’m afraid Councillor Lester’s 415,000 square metres translates into a not very impressive 3.22 per cent of Herefordshire’s highways.

At the current rate of surface dressing we’ll be all done in a little over 30 years.

The new Labour government is trumpeting an era of “honesty and transparency” in politics. It appears to me that Herefordshire Council hasn’t got the memo yet and smoke and mirrors are still the order of the day.

CHRIS ENGLAND

Eardisley