WHITE VAN Man

AUSTERITY is a word familiar to all of us.

So how does austerity affect you? Has it forced you to tighten your belt due to pay freezes? Is it due to a lack of funding for public services? Where and when is all this going to end?

Last week we discovered that wages for top- earning council officers range from £ 55,000 to £124,999 per year.

This is disgraceful at a time when austerity has been forced on us by those who make it clear that Argyll and Bute Council must make some very hard choices to save money.

When I think of public sector workers restricted to one per cent wage rises, or companies which offer zero-hours or reduced hours contracts, forcing many people to take up two or three part-time jobs, it makes my blood boil.

Is it time for a total rethink of local government officers salaries? Yes.

Not one council officer should earn more than £ 50,000 per year, and that goes for the chief executive.

It was said that you have got to pay top prices for top officers.

No official is worth that kind of money when they expect the workforce and electorate of Argyll and Bute to suffer.

Maybe council officers should take cuts in their salaries. Not only would that bring them back to reality with a bang but it would also help to sort out the financial crisis being experienced by the council.

At the end of the day not one of us is better than the other.

We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns – a sentiment that too many people are not willing to accept.