A FEW weeks ago it was announced that a senior officer who was appointed only a couple of years ago would be leaving the Oxford City Council establishment.

What an opportunity for the council to retain useful staff – those facing redundancy – but will the council take it?

The contribution the chief officer made in the two years may have been useful, but I doubt if he will be missed.

Any suggestions he put forward will be forgotten and any reports he produced will now be gathering dust in the Town hall cellars, joining other reports which never saw the light of day or were never acted upon.

In the present economic climate, his departure should be seen as a welcome relief.

We have too many chiefs and few indians and both our councils, the city and county, are guilty of trying to justify their importance and their inflated salaries.

They say they require ‘experts’ but these so-called ‘experts’ – more likely ‘Axe’perts at wielding an axe – are quick to employ ‘consultants’ at every opportune moment.

I hope the city council will refrain from filling this vacant post and let it lie dormant or made redundant forever.

The money saved will finance the pay of many home-helps and carers who are more useful to the community than pen-pushers.

VIM RODRIGO, Rivermead Road, Rose Hill, Oxford