I AM writing to add my thoughts on where cuts should be made by Oxfordshire County Council.

It is obvious that savings must be made, but why do officials only mention cuts to services and not cuts to the ‘back office’.

Surely the priority must be to see that the non-front line operations are as slimline and efficient as possible before cuts are made to services tax payers use. These services must, of course, also be run as efficiently as possible.

I went on to the council website and within a few minutes came across areas of expenditure that surprised me.

For instance the chief executive is paid £182,431 pa. Reporting to this person are two assistant chief executives on £106,282 pa each. All three of these people have personal assistants and the CE also has a policy assistant and an executive assistant.

One of the ACEs is responsible for strategy and has reporting to him four departmental heads, one of whom is called head of strategy. This person has a personal assistant, of course, and presumably a department.

I wonder why a council needs so many people to work out and implement strategy.

I also noticed that there is a head of strategy and transformation, with a personal assistant and, presumably, some staff, reporting to the director for social and community services.

There is no fear of these strategists being lonely.

The director for social and community services mentioned above is paid £128,194 pa and has a personal assistant, an assistant personal assistant and a personal secretary.

I was also surprised to see that the council makes an employer’s contribution of 19.3 per cent into the chief officer’s pension scheme.

These observations are the result of a brief look at the website and not an attack on any individuals. However, it has made me very concerned that our council looks top heavy, bureaucratic and not good value for money.

Can senior people at the county council please assure us that they are looking at the structure of all departments and not just the services provided.

JOHN GOULD, Oxford