I WISH to reply to county council leader Keith Mitchell’s letter in last Tuesday’s Oxford Mail.

I presume that Mr Mitchell means that removing 12 senior posts is saving £1.1m in this financial year?

Last year’s council accounts indicate the total remuneration of the 500 or so staff paid over £50,000 per annum comes to about £40m a year.

Contrast this with the reduction in library budget in 2010-11 from £10.5m to £8.7m. In the previous year (2008-9) the library spend was £12m – so there was a reduction over two years of 27 per cent.

If this same percentage reduction is applied to senior salaries the county should be saving £10.8m.

I’m sure there are plenty of Big Society volunteers ready and able to step in and run the council should such a budget reduction cause any hardship.

Fiona McKenzie, St Anne’s Road, Headington, Oxford