REFRESHING, I thought, someone is at last going to do something to address what has almost become a culture of institutionalised incompetence in the way some Council Services have been administered.

But there always has to be a down side and I see that it is proposed to resurrect what was referred to in the past as the 'Golden Handshake' so that if it turns out that we need to unburden ourselves of some of our senior officers, vast amounts of Council Tax payers money will be used to fund redundancies and early retirements.

Let us briefly remind ourselves of the real world:-

l 'A job for life' no longer a realistic expectation, retraining and even relocation.

l 'Pension Funds,' black holes, shortfalls and people working until seventy plus.

I would suggest if worst-case scenario becomes a reality, redundancy payments within statutory guidelines, and pension funds frozen but protected should be the order of the day.

Remember Garrington's Workers still fighting for their pension rights years after the plant closed? What a raw deal they had!

I also think if Bromsgrove District Council can find two million pounds to spend, better value would be achieved by helping ex MG Rover employees with their Council Tax bills this year and employing as many of them as possible so that our front-line services could be better implemented.

David L Pardoe

Chairman

Bromsgrove Independent Group Working for Bromsgrove