SIR — You report on "The high price of value for money" which West Somerset District Council incurred when trying to provide the services needed for those who elected them to run the district (Free Press November 23).
This happened because Central Government, in its misguided wisdom, had once again moved the goalposts and now requires councils to make decisions under their "new" Best Value policy instead of using the long-established practice of accepting the lowest tender (unless circumstances dictated otherwise) for the goods and services required by the electorate.
This new directive, which must have taken many civil servants months to write, involved our local officers in countless hours to digest, unravel and then implement, and has achieved a far worse result than would have been the case had everyone been allowed to use their heads, take a decision and then stand or fall by the result.
This sort of mess is occurring all too often lately and is the result of trying to mend something which isn't broken.
When one thinks of all the useful and urgent things these people should be doing with the wages and salaries we pay them, it is not surprising that we are not getting the service we deserve.
Michael Scott,
Ruggs Farm,
Brompton Regis.