Sir – I see that Oxford City Council could not resist somewhat belatedly jumping on the bonus culture bandwagon. But wait, surely it is rather more than that. A bonus is a one-off payment, whereas these mega-awards are recurring annual payments, themselves inflated from time to time by subsequent increases and payments which will also count towards the gold-plated pensions these individuals will receive later.

To seek to excuse it in part by saying senior staff received no pay rise this April is both fatuous and insulting. Moreover, does this apply to just these chiefs or all senior staff, and will other levels of management and those who deliver the services be offered the same independent review? At least the local MPs seem to be in touch with reality. Bob Price says the decision was taken “in a different economic situation”. Where has he been for the last year or so? We are told that there have been significant improvements in council services and the team has turned around the council’s performance. Surely they were engaged for just that purpose and are charged with doing so on the salaries they were quite happy to accept when applying for the job. As to offering salaries to retain staff, look at what is going on in the real world and especially not too far down the road at the county council. There’s likely to be a glut of experienced staff. Can we know who raised the need for an independent review of salaries, on what grounds, and why it should be limited to such a small select band? How can those responsible for such a decision look their fellow citizens in the eye, especially the pensioners and the unemployed?

How can the council get it so wrong and be so extraordinarily insensitive?

Alan Lester Abingdon