SIR – The Government would save money if they passed a law saying that at least 20 per cent of council top brass has to be recruited from successful people in the private sector.

People know that most councils cannot do things normally without making a mountain out of a mole hill. There has been, and still is, too much wastage with unnecessary ‘non- jobs’ and over-the-top council executive wages.

Another example out of many: Using a one or two-year-old phone directory to look up a certain council department. It is usually the case that the number will have changed, or it’s been amalgamated into another department with a new-fangled politically-correct title.

Many council executives would flounder in the private sector, and some are paid twice as much as the Prime Minister.

It is a gravy train which must be made to hit the buffers.

P W Selwood, Ainsty Road, Wetherby