IN SEVERAL issues now I have read our local authorities are proposing to cut various services for which they have a responsibility. I have yet to read that any one of our local authorities proposes to cut the members’ salaries. I was fortunate enough to be an employee of the former Gwent County Council when the members were not paid a salary; they only received travelling and subsistence under strictly controlled guidelines. I doubt whether anyone can say that authority was any the poorer for not having salaried members and I seriously question whether the current members work any harder.

Gwent County Council delivered 83 per cent of all local authority functions to a high degree of efficiency, with the second tier authorities only responsible for the remaining 17 per cent. There are a few of the former GCC members still serving on current councils who can verify my comments.

A. S. Brunt Trelawny Close Usk