Retiring at 60 unjustified

How much longer can those working in local authorities justify their insistence that they have a right to retire at 60 on index linked, final salary pensions paid for by the rest of us who no longer have a sustainable pension and little hope of retiring before 70, if then?

Their argument appears to be based on being paid lower salaries than in the private sector and the public service that they provide. It is educational to compare the salary levels offered by the Shropshire County Council in their weekly adverts with similar posts offered by any other employer in the county - while every week sees more and more queries over the value-for-money of the services for which they are responsible.

As an example, take the "improvements" to our roadways by the highways department. In Cleobury Mortimer, a plan to revamp the town centre is condemned as "a confounded mess". In Much Wenlock, a new road layout was found to have done nothing to answer years of complaints over traffic flow.

Staff in the private sector who were found to be responsible for such incompetence and waste would not even make it to retirement, but it appears impossible to call local authority staff, especially senior management, to any meaningful account between the stranglehold of union self-interest and the ready flow of taxpayers money.

Malcolm MacIntyre-Read, Much Wenlock