Following the recent announcement that the county council is staging several public meetings as part of a spending cuts debate, perhaps the council should be looking at limiting waste and concentrating on providing an efficient service.

We have seen recently that one benefit claimant has been allowed to illegally claim benefits for a decade.

This begs the question: what are council managers and their staff doing? Is it a case of lack of resources, or are they paying high salaries but still employing monkeys?

Also, what is the point of paying judges to pass sentences on members of the public with limited means, and letting them off any form of punishment (not even community service) as has been seen recently with benefit cheats and cases of vandalism?

With the arrival of the new Coalition Government, there were hopes of tightening-up on law and order. But with two parties involved, perhaps it is a case of two pairs of hands being worse than one.

Mick Mason, Church Street, Ducklington, Witney