I really could not believe that council officers had once more managed to waste tax payers money on yet another admitted management failure.

I refer to the compensation we the taxpayers will have to pay to the people who are victims of the inability of the planning department to comply with planning rules. When the council's director of resources states "the council has held its hands up and will pay out" what he really means is that the council tax payer will pay.

Mr Thompson may describe the incident which will cost over £130,000 of tax payers money as a "cock up", I think the words he should have used were "gross incompetence".

Des Morgan

Swindon