MADAM, Herefordshire's Highways Department has been headless for a year and it is beginning to show.

Galvanized poles appear along our roads without any signs on them and close enough together to breed like rabbits - and they do just that. At our expense and apparently without any supervision. Wire-pullers' vans block our narrow streets when the town is busy to fit lights on sign-posts that would be a dangerous distraction in broad daylight. We dig up the sidewalks and neglect to fix the drains. We have 'jobsworths' everywhere doing what they are capable of and simply disrupting the traffic.

Ross was a market town! One would have thought that somebody would be at least contemplating remedies for the disastrous consequences of its Enhancement Scheme: the throttling of Alton Street, the pollution due to stranded traffic in New Gloucester Road, the difficulty of getting to what shops we have left, the un-grasped nettle of High Street, or the dereliction of Broad Street.

But the application of any intelligence to these problems is not in evidence and it seems about time we did something about it.

K Horne, Gorsley