The holy father has kindly blessed us in Warrington.

He has left the Vatican to grace the streets of our humbel town with his feet.

The only problem is he is such a big clod-hopper he left holes everywhere.

Excuse my poor jokes.

I did a story on potholes for the paper once and a guy told me Warrington called the Holy City for it's poor roads.

I thought he his joking.

My bum begs to differ.

Riding through holes and cracks in the road is ten times worse on a bike than in a car, especially on modern aluminium frames which are much stiffer than older steel ones.

It especially bugged me as I cycled up St Mary's Road in Penketh to a meeting of Great Sankey Parish Council.

I was struck than even on a quiet and inoffensive road like that, I had to negotiate potholes, cracks and sunken manholes, all the while with cars poushing me towards a dangerously sloping road edge towards the kerb.

A bit more investment in road repairs would be nice.

Either that, or ban the pope.