We see a never-ending increase of our council tax, with services declining each year, and with cuts announced on a regular basis.

Why is this? I think we should be looking in a different direction and start to analyse where our council tax goes before we start spending on essential services.

We pay the city council's chief executive more than £120,000 a year, the strategic director for physical environment £76,000, the strategic director for housing and health £74,000 and the director for financial services £74,000.

On top of that, the council is advertising posts as follows: executive director for city services at £100,000, executive for city regeneration at £100,000, head of business transformation at £78,900, head of property and facilities management £64,400 and head of city leisure at £64,600.

It does not end there.

We also pay out £246,948 for allowances to city councillors and there are 10 managers on £50,000 to £60,000 per annum.

So before any money is spent on services, a whopping £3,264,848 has to be found to fund these so-called experts who raise the council tax each year and cut services but blame everyone else!

Does anyone know what the people do in the jobs above?

Is there any chance any one of them could come forward to explain their job and justify these outrageous salaries?

Is it not about time they started to look in the mirror and see where the cuts should come first?

ANDY BEAL Sandy Lane Blackbird Leys Oxford