I HAVE read with interest in your pages about local council planned pay increases. Strange how the 1 per cent increases only ever refer to the lower grades/wage earners. When low increases are agreed, they should refer to all – senior officers, officers, councillors and all employees. Everyone across the board. A case can always be made that to have/keep the best, the pay must be high. Well, that applies at every level. I also think that no-one paid out of the public purse should, under any circumstances, receive a wage higher than the prime minister.

Jean Gray, The Wades, Cwmbran