Kirk Field, of Linden Terrace, Newton Abbot, and for all residents, writes:

regarding the controversial micro ashphalt procedure, which is currently being used to destroy residential roads in our town: it ingeniously relies on us, the road users, to compact and roll the new road surface, thus saving the contractor time and effort...and the council money.

Genius – what's not to like?

Well, if it's laid down poorly on a residential cul-de-sac, which effectively sees low volume of traffic using just one lane, and lots of turning by power steering, the result is a gooey, uneven surface which is considerably worse than it was before the work began, with tyre marks and more holes in the surface than Donald Trump's golf course.

 A mere 24 hours after being vandalised by micro ashphalting, Linden Terrace resembles a Martian landscape; indented circles, tyre marks and pools of tar are proof that this process has been an unmitigated disaster for all who live here (who, incidentally, have been told by the contractors' literature that it will settle in six months).

Six months? This temporary surface is exactly that and will have disappeared from the road onto people's tyres and carpets within six weeks at the most – and sooner if summer arrives and it melts, it  as it surely will).

Furthermore, when the contractor parks huge articulated lorries on pavements, causing kerbstones to crack and break and leaving oil and tar deposits all across the pavement, it results in water pipes fracturing, causing leaks which are unable to run away down the victorian era granite drainage channels at the side of the road because, wait for it, they have been covered up by a layer of black sticky micro ashphalt.   

Devon County Council Highways Department has some serious explaining to do about why it is spending good money on bad practice and what it is going to do to make good the damage.

This is nothing short of a disgrace and an insult to the community they are responsible for serving.THIS AND OTHER LETTERS IN OUR DIGITAL EDITION