It is no surprise to see a big rise in the number of potholes on Oxfordshire’s roads following the winter we have had. We can all point to stretches of road that have been turned into no better than tracks because of the break-up of the surface.

County council staff face a tough job responding to all the complaints and it will take time to get round to them all.

This is, however, not a single-year problem. The condition of our roads has been getting progressively worse over the years because the sort of routine maintenance required has been squeezed out of under-pressure budgets.

The result is that the county council is having to spend a proportionately greater amount of time and money on firefighting.

The obvious answer is to spend more money resurfacing the county’s roads. Sadly, we see little prospect of that happening.