HAVING very nearly broken the nearside suspension on my car hitting a large hole in the carriageway that was camouflaged by a puddle a few days ago, I called at the Highways Department office.

A very helpful and delightful fellow met me. It would seem that the parlous state of the roads in and around the MHDC area is caused by lack of money. Nothing new.

We can all understand this but with another 10 per cent rise in Council Tax (which is the price of living in such a lovely place as Malvern), £5 rise in the car licence, escalating tax from petrol et al, it's about time locally we had a rather larger contribution from the £35 billion plus that is raised from motor vehicles.

The current government investment is not enough. Interestingly, the Chancellor repaid £34 billion of national debt last year. This could be construed 'Robbing Peter to pay Paul'.

The roads are awful and worn out. Piecemeal repairs have not bonded and craters abound. Can we have a citizens watch and report on this before someone is killed and motorists get what they had hoped they were paying for... a decent surface?

Call the Highways Team, they will react and they are very pleasant but very much restrained by budget.

R I A GREEN, Hanley Swan.