I read that the county council now employs corporate directors at salaries of £130,000 plus. It was presumably one of these who signed the contract for grass cutting with Balfour Beatty. The lack of commercial nous and even common sense in the people running our affairs is very worrying.

As one of your correspondents has pointed out, it is not sensible to have a contract without a penalty clause and as they were dealing with a completely new contractor there should have been a trial period or at least a break clause. To award a contract for five years is neither prudent nor in the interests of the ratepayers.

Common sense does not seem to be a requirement for council staff. Some years ago I was involved with the planning for the Paxcroft Mead development; the area was divided into blocks, each of which was given a housing density. Foolishly this was expressed as a minimum and maximum, e.g. 10-15. Only the council was surprised when applications came in at 14.9.

In one case the number of houses proposed actually exceeded the maximum but upon the parish council pointing this out they were told that by averaging with the adjoining block the maximum was not exceeded.

Geoffrey Richards, Ashton Road, Hilperton.