Saturday’s front page headline  “Top council jobs cut”  also proclaims “$1million-plus in savings”. Whilst it is great that the recently appointed CEO is making a start on one of the tasks he was appointed to do, the extent of the possible savings in personnel costs equates to only $350,000 a year. That is about 2.3% of the annual forecast personnel costs for year 2015/16 – which will still increase by about 1.5% if the forecast figure for year 2016/17 and beyond proves to be anywhere near accurate. A good start Mr Fell. We  look forward to more announcements about “thinking and acting smarter, and being less of a burden on the ratepayers”.

Graham Adams

Chairman, Ratepayers Association.