IN vain, have I waited for the claims of Ash Lane, Great Harwood, to be put forward in your "worst road in Lancashire" category, an oversight which I would like to rectify now.

Having only moved here in June, 2001, I can honestly claim to have seen it at its 'best' -- prior to the start of the new Morris Homes estate. And as a retired civil engineer, I know something about the deterioration in old minor roads like Ash Lane when subjected to construction traffic.

For months on end, pantechnicons from all corners of Europe have all done their best to destroy the surfaces of Ash Lane and the junctions with Northcliffe, Edge End Lane and the accesses to the estate.

The present condition of Ash Lane would qualify it to be renamed 'The Somme,' with the driver/cyclist faced with whole areas of missing surface, potholes, raised reinsatements, bubbling streams and subsiding trenches.

Will someone confirm that significant repairs, funded by Morris Homes, will be put in hand on completion?

J D MORTIMER, Edge End Lane, Great Harwood.