My wife and I had a good chuckle over one of your readers experience with a tipsy council official. We attended an official council event once, and were quite staggered by the volume of expensive wines and spirits, and pre-dinner drinks available, including the best champagnes.

When I say people got legless, I am not kidding. A year later, after we had experienced a very cold and vicious winter and the roads in our area resembled the back lanes of a Bulgarian village for cracks and potholes, we were told by the same council that no money was available to make quick repairs.

It’s quite disgraceful that the council can squander money on booze-ups and not have any money for urgent road repairs. I got my solicitor to send them a letter saying I would sue them if my cars became damaged over the shocking state of their roads. Two days later the road in question was repaired.