Sir - Perhaps if councillor Mitchell could spend less time on constant self-promotion, including his never-ending smug, self-congratulatory letters to The Oxford Times - letters which show that apparently he is unable to comprehend that criticism from his employers, the ratepayers, is a BAD thing - he might have more time to sort out Oxfordshire's highways department.

I could not possibly, within my allotted 300 words, do justice to my long list of examples of this department's inefficiency (and I am being kind here) and disdain for road users, but here's the latest: You'd think that night-time roadworks on the Western Bypass, even if carried out by the Highways Agency, would be accompanied by clear signage on the roads that come under Oxfordshire County Council responsibility, for example at the somewhat tricky Boars Hill roundabout when arriving from Cowley and wishing to go to Kidlington.

Or maybe even at the Sainsbury and Redbridge roundabouts, to give drivers even more advance notice.

Such signage might usefully warn motorists not to enter a section of road that during the night now stops abruptly at Botley roundabout, where without any prior notice one has to choose a completely different route to one's destination, a route that is much longer than the one the motorist could have chosen (eg via Headington) if given appropriate warning.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Well, I do, but OCC's highways department, even though it is headed by an absurdly titled 'cabinet member' (of the Free Republic of Oxfordshire, maybe?), appears to find such things as proper signage tedious and unimportant.

It's only the road user who is inconvenienced, after all, as he or she is inconvenienced by the incorrectly sited turning arrow into Steeple Aston's South Side.

John Kinory, Steeple Aston