I am shocked and disgusted to read that the senior managers of the county council will get salary increases of nearly six per cent when most council workers will only get about three per cent (Oxford Mail, March 1).

These top people must be already leading a life of luxury. They do not need any increase at all.

In my 40 years' experience of local government, as a low-paid employee, an elected councillor and latterly as a close observer of county council meetings, I have come to the view that the main function of so-called 'directors' is to write very lengthy reports full of jargon and columns of figures.

Hardly anyone reads them except a few councillors and one or two mandarins in Whitehall. A lot of these reports are demanded by the Government which sets targets to be monitored.

These outrageous salaries make a sickening contrast with the low incomes of many pensioners who do not even get the Government's claimed minimum of £105 per week.

I will raise the matter at the annual meeting of Oxfordshire Pensioners' Action Group on Wednesday, April 13 at 2pm in Oxford Town Hall. MICHAEL HUGH-JONES, Headley Way, Headington, Oxford