I WAS interested to read former Swindon chief executive David Kent's comments on the changing relationship between the senior officers and the elected representatives. He is only partly right.

As someone who worked as a committee clerk in local government in the 60s, I believe that the power of the local government officer in policy and decision-making has decreased enormously.

Mr Kent is right about problems caused by party politics, but I think this has muddied the waters and no more. The truth is, the elected representative used to rely heavily on the advice of senior officers when making decisions, which is not always the situation today!

In Mr Kent's day, he and his fellow chief officers were far more powerful than their counterparts today. Elected representatives today however, are more knowledgeable in local government matters.

You don't have to be a local government genius to work out the recent Swindon council problems. When Swindon became a unitary authority it did not have the quality chief officers in situ to carry out the work required.

Those councillors who appointed the chief officers must carry some responsibility for the appointments. The next layer of officials, appointed by these chief officers, have already turned out to be poor choices.

We require chief officers with vision, leadership skills and the ability to work effectively with an elected representative.

The appointment of Paul Docherty's successor is a crucial decision and one that needs careful thought. Paul's previous job was that of an education officer and perhaps his skills were more suited to education rather than chief executive of a council. Such appointments usually come from a background of legal, finance, administration and communication. Perhaps this was an error of judgement!

Let us hope our council has learned its lesson from past.

NIGEL SHARP

Bevisland

Eldene

Swindon