Sir – Your apocalyptic headline (October 21) is “Chancellor’s axe falls on Oxfordshire”. The implication is that there will need to be vastly reduced services in Oxfordshire.

I understand the need for this and I just hope that the senior executives of the Oxfordshire County Council will lead by example. The chief executive, Joanna Simons, is paid £182,000 pa, considerably more than the Prime Minister.

This is clearly unreasonable and I hope that Ms Simons will have the good sense and humility to realise that she cannot expect others to take a reduction in their standard of living while she continues to be paid more to run a county than the Prime Minister is paid to run the country.

The Prime Minister has shown the way by taking a pay cut, now it’s the turn of Ms Simons.

David Astor, Milton-under-Wychwood