Potholes and parking problems were among the topics discussed by candidates standing for election to Leicestershire County Council during a debate.
The Conservatives, Green Party, Labour and Reform UK have candidates standing in each of the 55 seats on the council on 1 May, with the Liberal Democrats in all but one seat.
In a debate hosted by BBC Radio Leicester, local representatives of the parties were questioned over issues including local government reorganisation and the state of the council's finances, while also answering questions submitted through the BBC's Your Voice, Your Vote page.
But one subject stood out the most – roads.
Pothole problems
Kate, a community carer based in Loughborough, drives a lot for her job and asked about the state of roads in her area.
"We're told over and over again that it'll be sorted and it never is. Or it is, but poorly done," she told the candidates.
Rebekka Yates, for the Green Party, said people might know her party was in favour of alternatives to car use but "that doesn't mean that we're not car drivers and don't care about car drivers".
"We recognise that fixing potholes is important to people," she said.
Dan Harrison, who left the Conservatives in February to join Reform UK, talked about the wider issues of demand placed on our roads as vehicles get heavier.
He told the debate he wanted "to look in more detail at repairs" as he claimed many were not completed properly.
Conservative candidate Deborah Taylor, current acting leader of the council, claimed cash allocated to the county following the cancellation of HS2, which could have been used to repair roads, had been "stripped away" by the Labour-run government.
Labour group leader at County Hall, Max Hunt, blamed "years of austerity" that meant road repairs had fallen behind and said there was not the money to do the work now.
Michael Mullaney, who leads the main opposition for the Liberal Democrats, said he had first-hand experience of reporting potholes and claimed the council initially refused to repair potholes he and other residents reported at the Ashby Road/Normandy Way junction in Hinckley.
"It looks like they are now going to be fixed but it took a long time," he said, as he called on the authority to be "more receptive to people's concerns" about potholes.
Parking hell
Jo Short, who lives near the city-county border in Beaumont Leys, said it could be dangerous pulling out of any driveway because of parked cars on surrounding pavements.
She said: "Nobody has the guts to come along and stick a parking ticket on these cars."
Labour's Max Hunt said a highway obstruction was a police matter "but we can't expect the police to be on every street corner".
"It's question of how the community can respond to this," he said.
Dan Harrison, for Reform UK, talked about how serious a problem this was for pedestrians too, including the disabled, and suggested drivers should be more considerate.
The Green Party's Rebekka Yates said: "What we'd rather do is talk to people in the area to try and prevent it happening in the first place."
But the Conservative's Deborah Taylor said the authority's powers were restricted, saying it was currently only illegal to park on the pavement in Leicestershire if there were double yellow lines or specific restrictions in place.
But she added it was "a real issue and it is brought up on the doorstep".
