The council leaders of Bournemouth and Poole breezily dismiss the substantial savings already made by Peter Davies, the elected mayor of Doncaster (Hero mayor creates nightmare for others, Daily Echo, August 1).

Nevertheless, the actions taken by Mr Davies do show the way to reduce costs which apply just as much to Bournemouth and Poole as Doncaster. Mr Davies began by cutting his own salary from £73,000 to £30,000 which Cllr Leverett says cannot be done in Poole because his own salary is £30,000. This is to ignore the fact that neither Cllr Leverett nor Cllr MacLoughlin are elected mayors but merely leaders of their councils. Both councils employ chief exec-utives on generous salaries as well. In Bournemouth, at least nine council officers receive a salary in excess of £90,000 each per annum.

The number of officers in this category increased by four between 2007-8 and 2008-9. Clearly, the recession had no impact on increases for the high-earners! Also in Bournemouth, we now have a transformation director employed for four days a week at a salary of £80,000 annually – a rate equivalent to £100,000 per annum. Given the current economic difficulties, the time must surely be ripe for some top-down reductions. A good start – taking a leaf out of Mr Davies’s book – would be a 10 per cent reduction in all salaries above £50,000 and a review of the number of senior officers actually required to run councils the size of Poole and Bournemouth.

TONY WILLIAMS, Warnford Road, Bournemouth