I must agree with recent letters to the Gazette regarding our local road surfaces, especially the section between Kingsbridge and Totnes with its countless potholes.

If I worked for the Devon County Council or the local councils and travelled our roads daily I would feel ashamed that road surfaces could be so poor on important links to this area.

We are told repeatedly that the South Hams is a tourist destination with jobs reliant on visitors, but what people must think as they travel around our Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – unless they think we are preserving an “olde worlde” look.

If money should become available for road repairs, it could be cynical to say a well-paid “Surface Kombat Inspection Department”, or SKID for short, would be appointed to carry out a lengthy strategy counting and measuring the potholes, leaving just enough money for a bucket of chippings and a spade.

Sadly many of our services have stood still or disappeared during the long spell of austerity measures, with an ex-chancellor telling us that we are all in it together and must tighten our belts. But now the same ex-chancellor switches from doom and gloom to greed as he now has more jobs than I own belts.

I don’t expect things to change for some time yet as we continue to pay money in with very little back as the pay gap at the top continues to increase – like our potholes.

Patrick Hayman

Washabrook Way

Kingsbridge