I HAVE electronic copies of letters sent to the Barry & District News which are over 3 years old, relating to the poor condition of Park Road and Porth Y Castell. But to date no work, other than patching, has been undertaken there.

In the meantime we have had the much vaunted launch and subsequent re-launch of the pothole filling program (Big Phil) plus the ever popular continuous work of the council employees who go around highlighting potholes.

Out on a walk yesterday evening, I was somewhat surprised to see that the road that leads from the Lake and Knap alongside Romilly Park and up to St Nicholas Road has been resurfaced. Yet to my recollection driving along that road prior to that work wasn’t half as uncomfortable as driving along Park Road is.

Having previously seen other parts of the road network around Romilly Park resurfaced one starts to wonder how the program of resurfacing work is drawn up and prioritised? It cannot be on traffic volumes as Park Road is one of the major feeder roads to the suburb. Maybe Romilly Park residents just don’t like Big Phil, and so instead of having their potholes filled like the rest of us (if we’re lucky) they get a complete resurfacing job so they can avoid seeing him?

Or is there another force at work here – is it a case of a word in the appropriate ears is more productive than hoping for some objective evaluation of the relative road surfaces? If so, could someone tell me the owner of the said hearing organs, as I have tried everything else I can think of to draw attention to this road and its appalling condition, in attempts to get it sorted out?

On checking the Vale Council web site, relaunched last year, I decided to check the road re-surfacing program for 2014. Unfortunately, despite the relaunched web site, the program of road re-surfacing works relates to 2013 - old wine in new bottles?

Meantime in this instance, a minority of residents are obviously benefitting from the lack of a properly prioritised and objectively drawn up program of road resurfacing, whilst many more of us continue to travel daily over a road that would not look out of place in rural Africa.

Why wouldn’t Vale residents vote for a council merger with Cardiff – we could hardly be worse off than we are at the moment as far as I’m concerned.

Nick Meyrick

Marine Drive

Barry