'More officials will lead to more costs for taxpayers'

Reading the qualifications of my choices only led me to further believe that it’s nothing more than jobs for the boys – pretty obvious to a lot of people judging by the turnout at the time.

Now our current PCC feels he is also capable of running fire and rescue turning himself into an FPCC.

What we need is more police and firemen, not more unqualified people telling them what to do. Millions in extra funding for policing was announced this year. Did Cumbria not receive any or is it easier to just increase council tax?

With the imminent break-up of Cumbria County Council, Carlisle MP thinks we need an Elected Mayor – another cost for all of us. Even more worrying is that his good friend Michael Gove is to impose it on us. Again, this appears to be UK democracy!

The cost to Band D ratepayers for the London Mayor is a £289 surcharge on their rates. What’s it to be here?

The Hon Gentleman’s article (The Cumberland News, March 18) uses the word ‘should’ twice – there should be substantial savings and should be a reduction in senior officers and clearer lines of responsibility.

Large amounts of redundancy are being paid to many county council officers along with gold plated pensions.

Repairs along the short stretch of road I live on are not even being recorded. Think of this county wide – you couldn’t run a business like it.

The worrying part is that some people will simply step sideways into the new authority and carry on in the same manner. It will be interesting to see in a few years’ time if the benefits do arrive.

It’s good to see that a few people are doing well out of our council tax, while many are struggling such as the people who helped us through the pandemic – nurses, lorry drivers, our great dustmen, police, care workers etc.

We need more of them, not more officials able to impose more costs and rules upon us.

D Williams
Carlisle