IN his recent letter Martin Wicks says that I insult the council care workers by saying they are too expensive. Well I am sorry Mr Wicks, but they are.

Their union agree that there are 64 workers involved, producing 450 car hours a week and they put the blame on the management for this. If you do a quick calculation you will see that each worker averages seven hours per week, that is one hour 24 minutes per day.

There are full time and part time staff involved so the actual figure per employee may vary slightly but the total is still only 450 hours per week.

We pay £1.3m for this service and then have to pay private providers again for the hours not covered, these are 1,350 hours at £15 per hour, per week.

So don’t lecture me Mr Wicks about costs, the union agreed with the figures but blame the council.

Where else can you get paid a full week’s pay for only doing, on average, one hour 24 minutes a day?

COUN PETER MALLINSON Walcot