Anger over council's policy to cut costs

LETTER - I am incandescent with rage and upset after reading the headline "OAP is victim of switch-off" (Shropshire Star, December 2) in which it was claimed an 86-year-old woman fell in the dark and injured her face following the switch-off of Powys street lights to save money.

To the council's chief executive, I say you are failing in your duty to us.

Therefore, may I respectfully advise the council that if it did an in-house clear-out of the growing gold-plated bureaucracy and silly money wages paid to itself this would save millions of pounds.

Under the Freedom of Information Act I asked how may people are employed by Powys County Council on a starting salary of £30,000 or more.

We, as council tax payers, are paying an annual salary range of £117,854 to £125,981 to the chief executive and we have two executive directors earning a salary range £94,277 to £107,086.

Other posts of interest may be the nine heads of various departments who fall in the salary range of £69,683 to £82,492, and our six shire managers, whose pay is between £51,238 and £55,337 .

Further, we are paying minimum start salary of £47,814 for 10 school improvement officers. Has anyone out there seen any school improvements, I ask?

Powys County Council, as at October 15 2008, employed 1,285 people on annual starting salaries of at least £30,000.

Let us not forget that to all of these salaries you can safely add extra benefits like final salary pension.

Kenny Thain, Powys