Sir – In last week’s issue it was reported that the county council was exploring ways of making savings in the cost of services.

Council leader Keith Mitchell was quoted as seeking a ‘leaner and more efficient’ council.

I am all in favour. As a governor of a local primary school and chairman of its health and safety committee, may I offer one suggested saving.

Conscious as I am of the importance of guarding the health and safety of children, I nevertheless believe that there is room for savings in this area.

Our school was reported by the OCC in March this year as demonstrating an outstanding level of health and safety compliance. Despite this, the school will be re-inspected in February 2010 and in every subsequent year.

It will take an inspector three hours at the school to examine documents, talk to the headteacher and undertake a site safety tour. A report will then be produced by the council. A reasonable estimate is that this entire process requires a full day of the time of an experienced council officer. There are about 360 education premises in the county, so it is a simple calculation to work out that this is very time-consuming and costly.

A revisit to a poorly-rated school seems sensible, but would it not be more economical to revisit outstanding schools less frequently? Not to distinguish between well-performing and poorly-perfoming schools in this area of inspection smacks of unquestioning bureaucracy.

Trevor Hendy, Woodstock