I refer to the feature by Joanne Jarvis on your front page last week and the description of the state of the road in Canterbury Way, Stevenage. The description was very accurate. Indeed I would go just a little further, and you will probably actually find

I refer to the feature by Joanne Jarvis on your front page last week and the description of the state of the road in Canterbury Way, Stevenage. The description was very accurate. Indeed I would go just a little further, and you will probably actually find better dirt roads in Africa. My son rides a motor scooter and describes it like an obstacle course, dodging the pits and holes.

But, with Hertfordshire Highways running it what else can you expect?

I would also just correct the misleading comment from that august body's spokesman. They said they have no current plans, but a short time ago they did have plans to refurbish the road. Bonkers plans, but plans all the same.

About 18 months ago, we in Canterbury Way received a document describing plans to refurbish the road. "At last", I thought, "after living here for 38 years, the road will be repaired." But the repairs came at a price!

All the right things were there, resurface the road, improve the lighting, all that is sensible and long overdue. But this scheme also came with the usual loony ideas of people without a clue as to the problems the road possesses.

Naturally, we would have expensive speed bumps every 25 feet as well as other so called 'safety measures'. But the most idiotic of the schemes proposed was to remove the bus laybys.

I wrote to the department absolutely incensed at the lunacy of the plan. Having driven up and down the road probably over 50,000 times over the years, the biggest danger on Canterbury Way are the bus stops without laybys. To remove those we would have to be utterly insane. Thankfully, my response, no doubt reflecting many other submitted views, caused the scheme to be abandoned. So now what do we have, the same old worn out and dangerous road.

To conclude, it appears the county have money to waste on loony schemes with expensive speed bumps and costly bus layby removal. And money to paint white lines over the crumbling road surface and money to put cats eyes at the curb because the lighting is so poor. And apparently money to paint the road red at every roundabout in the town, and white hatch marks in strange places, but no plans to repair this disgraceful road and improve the dreadful lighting.

Oh, and when they do eventually resurface the road, will they then repaint the lines or are they planning to resurface round them?

RON WALKER, Canterbury Way, Stevenage

* The answer to your question on roads 'Do we get value for money?' is most definitely 'no!' The government extorts approximately £42bn a year from British motorists and, if we are lucky, spends about £2bn.

A fairly recent TV documentary examined the repair activities of many county highway authorities. Only in Devon did it find full time inspectors of road repairs, eight in all, whose duties were to sit on the backs of highway contractors and ensure they did their jobs properly. Subsequent failure of the work was put right at the contractor's expense. How many such inspectors does Hertfordshire Highways employ? Judging by the rate at which the repairs to our roads deteriorate, I suspect the answer is none.

BERNARD MADDOX, Oaks Cross, Stevenage

* I would just like to go along with what Ranjot Dosanjh has to say about Canterbury Way. Why waste money on the cosmetics of the road, when there is still a lot to be done to the foundation? I totally agree with what the man says; we have other roads in the town that are just as appalling, how about Grace Way, eastbound and Martins Way from John Henry Newman? Wymondley High Street is particularly bad, just to name but a few. The county council needs to get its fingers out and repair our roads, pronto!

ROBERT STEED, York Road, Stevenage

* Having read this week's edition of The Comet, I felt I needed to respond to the story about our roads in Stevenage. Where do I start? I drive a Mazda MX-5 and I have lost count of the times that my suspension/wheels have had a bashing and I am a sensible driver!! Broadwater Crescent is outrageous, one of the humps is crumbling away on one side and at one junction there is a chunk of the road missing!

Gunnels Wood Road is another one, full of repairs so it is extremely bumpy and terrible for your suspension. All over Stevenage there are numerous drainage holes that are not filled in properly, random holes and chunks of tarmac missing. I am getting extremely fed up with our roads and furious about the amount of money we pay in Britain for road tax.

With the amount of money we pay, we should have excellent roads. I have been tempted on numerous occasions to complain to the council as I am just getting so fed up with it. I can just feel the damage it is doing to my car sometimes when it has been too late and I have gone over an exposed drain cover. Also speed humps are getting ridiculous. I can understand the purpose and I am fine about some of them but, for instance, those terrible ones they have put in at Stevenage Leisure Park (the road which runs past the businesses), I can no longer take my car down that road as the front of my spoiler gets scraped and that is going at literally one mile an hour, so unnecessary!!

LOUISE GIBBS, by email