If Coun Fogg had read more carefully my letter of August 13, to which he replied in last week’s Gazette, he would know that I made no reference to the level of remuneration for the chief executive of our unitary authority. I simply suggested that an increase of £25K in return for taking over all the responsibilities of four district councils seemed to be good value for tax payers.

As the councillor stresses the need to check the facts, he would have been better informed if he had looked for more up to date figures than those he quotes from the audit commission which relate to the year 2007/08.

Had he looked at current levels of chief executive remuneration for authorities similar to our own, he would have found that the median is £180K.

In fact the remuneration being paid to CEs of recently formed unitary councils is reported to be in the range £180K to £200K. Wiltshire’s proposals would appear to straddle the lower end of the range. The chief exec of the new council will have appreciable influence over the standard of services we receive and the amount of council tax we have to pay for them. It is, therefore, important that the council have the best available candidates to choose from.

I will leave it to your readers to decide which system to find suitable candidates they would prefer to see.

Either professional head hunters who know where such candidates are now employed and at a cost of roughly 0.3 pence per council tax payer; or the suggested cheaper option of having Coun.

Fogg and your good self involved in the process as the councillor suggests. But I wonder if the councillor is aware of the cost of the appropriate and necessary advertising.

Ronald Scott, Sparrows, Lanhill.