Madam,

We have all been given the opportunity to complete a very one-sided questionnaire asking how we would save £5m of Gwynedd expenditure.

I suggest that the county council has failed to include the greatest area for potential cost savings, namely an outrageous number of overpaid, underworked councillors.

How can a country of three million justify 22 councils employing 1,222 councillors when Manchester has 2.6 million people with one council employing 94 councillors?

This means that in Wales there is one councillor for every 2,454 people, while in Manchester there are 26,595 people per councillor.

I feel that removing the flotsam would generate many millions of pounds at a stroke.

Dr Michael P Whitlock, Dolgellau