We learn that senior officials who have presided over repeated fiascos and financial mismanagement in Oxfordshire County Council are to be rewarded for making our council the laughing-stock of local authorities (Oxford Mail, March 1).

Their disproportionate pay awards, council leader Keith Mitchell reassures us, are to "attract and retain the quality of senior manager that we need".

What competent manager would want to be associated with this chamber of horrors?

Do we want to retain managers who are unaware of normal street seat prices, incapable of arranging the cobbling of a street and so inadequate that not only can accounts not be balanced but some balances cannot even be found in the first place?

If our councillors are so incompetent that they consider it worthwhile attracting more of the same, it's time that both officials and councillors are replaced. It's our money, our taxes, our hard-earned income which is being squandered.

JOHN MACALLISTER

Kidlington