COUNTY Councillor Hazel Harding's risible attempt to justify the exorbitant expenses she and her colleagues are pocketing cannot go unchallenged.

To claim that they (councillors) would earn more if they worked in the private sector is an insult to all the hard working people in industry, commerce and other professions.

First, people in the private sector spend years studying and training to get where they are.

Secondly, they take full responsibility for their decisions. Unlike our elected members they cannot simply shrug off a massive overspend on some Information Centre for example, by saying: "Well, we didn't expect costs to rise when we agreed the project two years ago."

And last but by no means last, no-one in the private sector is able to vote themselves the amount of expenses they want, or the myriad of ways in which to claim them.

My experience in the private sector was that expenses were reimbursed only against out-of-pocket expenditure and only then, once every receipt had been scrutinised by an eagle-eyed accountant.

Councillor Michael Welsh is backing the increases, then soft soaps the tax payer by warning against further large increases. (I would have been much happier if he had said no further increases at all) for fear of creating professional councillors.

Actually, that might not be a bad idea. That way, they could be interviewed for their suitability for the role, sacked if they were not efficient, and they would pay tax on their earnings.

D WALKER, Barrowford -- full address supplied.