Time to cut back council management

Sir, - Through his efforts to show gender equality in the education department of Fife Council, Councillor Bryan Poole has perhaps provided one of the main reasons Fife and all other councils are in such dire financial straits.

When I started teaching in 1973 we had one director of education.

I assume he had assistants responsible for primary and secondary sections.

Mr Poole now cites four executive directors, four heads of education and then numerous education officers.

Would Mr Poole like to tell us the cost of all these management posts and explain why they are all absolutely necessary when 40 years ago they weren’t?

Are education standards higher now as a result of these posts than they were 40 years ago?

I am willing to bet that education is not the only section that is overburdened by management.

Frequently we see posts that are being lost among the frontline workers.

How many more could be employed for the cost of the managers?

Another problem I have discovered is that the more tiers of management, the less responsibility is taken by each level.

Any worker who has ever tried to get a decision will tell you that it usually takes so long that the issue is redundant by the time a decision is finally made.

I won’t raise the subject of why all assistant rectors were rebranded depute rectors with, no doubt the increase in salary. Change the name, increase the salary.

Will there ever come a day when one of our councils bites the bullet and gets rid of all unnecessary expensive posts? George Connolly. 11F Saint Margarets Well, Dunfermline.

Fife Council HQ: Fife House, Glenrothes.