SIR – The potholes in our roads caused by the recent weather, come as no surprise. The resurfacing of our roads is now done much quicker and cheaper than used to be the case.

The reason roads never broke up in the past is because all new road surfaces were rolled using a 21-ton road roller.

Nowadays, they use a much smaller roller, while minor repairs are simply tamped down by hand.

I know that today’s traffic is much heavier, but car parks and residential streets are also crumbling, proving that the road surface has not been packed down enough.

Today’s methods are not quicker or cheaper if the job has to be redone every year. It is yet another case of our lowering of standards. A quick fix rarely works.

Bring back the steamrollers. Maybe the boys of today will get as much pleasure at watching them as we did, and they did the job they were designed to do.

Keith Rayner, Laburnum Drive, Baildon