THERE are various views currently being aired over both the council's budget crisis, and the furore over the departure of Chris Harman.

I believe there are factors that are being overlooked, but should be taken into account, both in how we arrived at the budget deficit, and whether any pay-off should be made to Mr Harman.

The first set of facts relates to the key personnel responsible for overseeing the budget. If we assume that work on this for the various committees started around October/November 2008, that personnel would have been Mark Meredith, Chris Harman and Julie Gill, the chief financial officer.

As we know the referendum result in late October meant that Mark Meredith's tenure would finish in early June 2009. Julie Gill gave notice of her departure in late 2008 and had left by the end of March 2009.The position of Chris Harman was not as clear-cut. The recruitment process for a new chief executive was to start in January 2009, with the intention of an appointment before the end of March 2009.

Were these surrounding events enough of a distraction to prevent a clear and sharp focus on the budget preparations? Although there was plenty of rhetoric at the time on how we should take care, the fact we were then presented with a projected eight per cent shortfall before we had reached the halfway point of this year speaks volumes.

Mark Meredith and Julie Gill have since departed, the one constant being Chris Harman, who we now learn is seeking a pay-off settlement. I would suggest that no pay-off is merited, even if there may be a statutory obligation.

The solution to the budget crisis rests with councillors.

Our councillors seem to have placed too much reliance on officers and on figures nearly two months old.

The council leadership should take immediate charge with decisive action, insisting on up to the minute figures from the officers. I also suggest a specially created financial task force be set up. We need a coherent action plan.

To do this we need to consider all options not just redundancies.

JOHN MATTHEWS

Meir