There have been reports of temporary managers at Southend Council being paid high wages. It is also well known senior managers at the council are paid high wages.

At the end of June I am being made redundant, so I will be looking for work.

I am quite prepared to do the chief executive’s role for £50k a year, which would be an immediate saving.

Also, if any manager was off long-term sick, I would get the second-in-command to take over temporarily.

There would be no more temporary managers employed from agencies, as it would all be in-house.

My first priority would be a review of all salaries of senior managers and executives, and no one would earn more than myself.

There would also be a ban on all consultants.

So come on, Southend Council, give me a job and I will sort out your finances and relieve the burden on the council taxpayers.

Keith Davies
Chesterfield Crescent
Eastwood

...It’s no wonder the public sector is terrified of spending cuts when we are paying £550 a day for a temporary manager, and this is only one of six hired by Southend Council. Our chief executive says this is a daily rate and we don’t have to pay extras. Thank our lucky stars there, then.

I wonder what these temporary managers are for?

Going by the council’s sickness record, I can guess.

Talk about easy come, easy go – and please don’t tell me these people would earn much more in the private sector. When are we going to get a council which is concerned where our money is spent?

M Kemp
Trinity Road
Southend

...Why is Southend Council paying huge amounts of our money to interim managers?

Research shows it is all down to what they call the big money theory.

According to this, an officer who demands £210,000 a year must be ten times better than a genuine worker on a salary the borough can afford. Any person already earning big money will tell you this is true.

The same goes for when someone in the town cannot think where to put their elephantine museum. Advice from some big money north-country consultants costing £500,000 must be miles better than the views of local people, which are free of charge and therefore worthless.

The proof of the theory is in South Africa.

Footballers from Slovenia and Algeria earn only a basic wage, so it follows that the England boys, who are paid seriously big money, must be ten times better. Doesn’t it?

Ric Morgan
Hobleythick Lane
Westcliff