LAST year I went to Nepal, and Herefordshire roads are now in a similar condition. In Blakemere and Moccas due to the heavy rainfall, - we were cut off at times through January and February and I completely understand that these things happen, and that we are lucky that we were not as affected as badly as other areas.

But... The B4352 between Blakemere and Tyberton has had a flood on Bullpits corner every single winter since BT installed the pipe, and this means that the regular flood causes people to drive right around it onto the other side of the road. However between 26th January and 26th February this year, the road has been completely impassable to cars and often closed to all vehicles. Farmer Phil has pulled out (without charge) 26 cars, 2 vans and a camper van from the flood. For our own small businesses - Wiggly Wigglers, Lower Blakemere Farm and The Great British Florist we rely on growing seeds and flowers, despatching goods, buying product and obviously our team has to get to work. We are used to adverse weather conditions on the farm. However, we have been meeting suppliers and delivery vehicles, unloading goods on the other side of the flood, ferrying in staff, and driving round the flood to get everywhere etc etc. Imagine the cost of this - when you multiply the road problems in Herefordshire along with the individuals affected, and the businesses who have had to deal with similar problems. The cost of 26 ruined cars alone must be astronomical.

On Sunday I hit a completely hidden pothole on the Madley to Lulham road. My neighbour did the same (as have countless others). My car had to be towed away, like countless others. The cost will be over £400, and this is the third time this has happened to me in 2 years. The crater was on a corner, - there would be no way of avoiding it unless you drive on the wrong side and it wasn't visible because of water. There was no warning - and there still isn't. Same goes I know for hundreds of potholes all over the county. Meanwhile yesterday the council were spotted mending the potholes down a lane leading to one farm in Kingstone.

The real cost to the people in our county must be enormous and hidden, but it's more than this, we are all driving in fear. We're trying to avoid the dangers of hitting a pothole, which often means driving in the middle of a road or on the other side entirely. This means our roads are far more dangerous as we all have to drive to avoid crashing into the holes. I wonder on those real costs... The costs of the council dealing with the complaints. The real figures for people on sick pay at the council who are depressed because of it all (and how this compares to companies who only offer statutory sick pay). The costs to our cars, our maintenance, the delays - the added journey time, and so on. More than that I would really like to see the stats on the mood in Herefordshire at the moment - most people I talk to are absolutely fed up of driving conditions, and sick of the negligence.

The government and the council will say there's no money. It's the cuts. It's austerity... It's the recession... and so on.

This just doesn't stack up. The real costs - the true costs of this negligence are far higher if they are accounted for.

Herefordshire people are now in touch via social media, and we can see the effect this is having on each other. I believe that we should not pay road tax or relevent local authority tax for these years of negligence, and I also believe that this situation needs to be sorted within weeks, as currently Herefordshire is impossible to navigate safely, and the knock on effects to business and tourism will be disastrous.

Heather Gorringe

Wiggly Wigglers

Lower Blakemere Farm

Blakemere

Hereford

HR2 9PX

Heather.

I have to say that if you wrote a book in this vain, I wouldn't get past page 1, I can see that you are annoyed.

With reference to your points about Bull pits corner and the other flood closer to your farm, it was obvious that the water not only flooded the road but the fields on both sides, land that you farm, there was nowhere for this to go other than drain through the land, hopefully this is an unusual event.

With reference to the drainage at bull pits corner specifically, I have ensured that this was in the current year program to fix before the onset of this particularly wet spell, however, following a short conversation recently with your husband, I suggested to Balfour Beattie that there was an easy way to deal with this problem and furthered that idea with them earlier today and they are looking to find a way to fix this permanently by installing a drainage system that will pick up both areas of flooding and drain through lower Blakemere farm down to the wood, work that might be done through help from you the farmer and your contractor and road traffic management supplied from BB when crossing the road if this is needed.

I believe that provided they are happy to make this happen, a way of preventing this again can be found. They have your husbands phone details to progress this.

The cost of breakdown of County infrastructure over the recent weather is probably in excess of £3 million at present and new defects are being reported daily that are caused by the extreme wet weather.

All this work will be registered under Bellwin funding specifically for damage to infrastructure caused by unusual weather events.

You will have seen that the Council is investing an additional £20 million of funding to bring as much of the County C and UC roads upto a standard that will require less remedial revenue maintenance over the next 10 years.

£15 million of this is being scheduled for this summer with the rest in 2015. This is as well as the normal annual block funding from our budget from government.

The roads maintenance budget will have to support the cost of this additional investment which must be met from increased efficiency that our new contractor Balfour Beattie signed upto when agreeing the public realm contract over the next ten years.

To this end the BB management are re structuring the operation to get the savings needed and ensure they have the capacity to deliver the enormous task of delivering the additional work that this new investment requires.

This investment is for repairing roads - not chasing potholes which has been the norm for the last couple of years.

Over the last couple of years,A and B roads have had priority repairs and there just has not been sufficient budget to maintain the lesser roads to a reasonable standard.

We aim to fix this with this significant extra investment.

Please note that to bring the Councils 2500 miles of road upto a good state would require approx £94 million investment, so we won't fix everything!

However, any category 1 pothole has to be repaired in 24 hours, and there is a definition of these.

I hope that you reported the holes you refer to to the email address to be found on the council website or used the interactive map for reporting them on.

If you can provide evidence for the damage to your vehicle from hitting a pothole that has not been repaired within the timescales given in the highways maintenance plan, ( to be found by searching on the council website) then you may be successful in a claim for those damages.

With regards to your view on witholding payment of taxes because of negligence, I'm sure your MP will advise caution!

Regards

Cllr Philip Price

Cabinet member - Infrastructure

Ward member - Golden Valley North.