IF thousands of people have been struck down by the 'winter vomiting' bug Norovirus then how come there are so many cars on the road?

Don't worry, this isn't another rant about traffic, although the traffic was shocking this morning and I struggled to get out of second gear.

Not only that but I witnessed some dreadful driving and abuse of yellow box junctions, but don't even get me started on that one.

No, this diatribe is about roads, but it's the state of them and that of the pavements that I want to vent my frustration over.

It struck me on Saturday as I was driving along Bridge Lane in Appleton - which is not the best of roads to tackle due to the double parking and frequent buses - just what a mess many of our roads are in.

In fact, I think Warrington Borough Council could probably win a prize for the worst roads in the north west, and possibly the whole country.

The council would say, if I cared to ask, that in order to sort out our roads, it would have to put up our council tax. But I'm not so sure.

Back to Bridge Lane where repairs have been done - if you can call them repairs.

On one side of the road, opposite the turning you go down for Broomfields, there is a long patch of road that has obviously had some attention.

It's as though someone has come along and cut out a large rectangle and filled it up with some more tarmac.

But that's where the problems lie - it's so uneven. In fact, it looks as though it would have been better to have left the road alone in the first place.

I'm sorry but that's not a repair when it's left so bumpy and uneven.

We have paid for that 'repair' - us the council taxpayers.

I could probably have done a better job myself. If that's a skilled worker's handywork then they obviously need to get themselves down to Specsavers.

And that's just one road - there's many more like it that are just as awful with partial 'repairs'.

What happened to steam rollers? Do they get used any more to smooth out roads?

Then there's the state of the pavements. The pavement near the Market multi-storey car park, opposite all those offices, is appalling.

It's all broken with sharp pieces sticking out just waiting to trip someone up.

My dad lives in a small town in rural Somerset, with lots of windy, country roads, but they are in such a better condition that it's a pleasure to drive.

Surely we can do better than this for a town our size?

PS If anyone has any photos of dreadful roads and pavements, please e-mail them to me and I'll happily publish them. npriest@guardiangrp.co.uk