Dame Andrea Jenkyns is in for a rude shock if she thinks council cutting staff is the answer - Yorkshire Post Letters

Dame Andrea Jenkyns is in for a rude shock if she thinks Lincolnshire County Council could dispense with 10 per cent of its staff. Presumably she thinks this can be done without affecting services, if so a naive belief.

I don't know where Dame Andrea has been for the last 15 years but the local government was badly hit by early 20 per cent cuts in government grants by the Conservative Government.

It's been hit too by rising costs of social care and children's services. Lincolnshire and other Councils were forced to cut back on services and staff so there is precious little slack to trim as she and naive new councillors will find out.

For evidence of funding cuts, Bill Schiffmann's letter about library provision is relevant (The Yorkshire Post, May 5).

Not only South Yorkshire has public libraries worse than they were, it is a problem across the nation. Nearly all library services fail the requirement of the 1964 Public Library and Museums Act "to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons". Even basic library responsibilities like book selection have been hived off to commercial suppliers.

I am no fan of elected mayors but the state of library services is not their fault. Cutting library services was an option that didn't involve the high political risks of, say, cutting children's services.

Someone said ‘all politics is local’ and maybe lack of attention to the local dimensions has given long established political parties a bloody nose.

Whether it is libraries or the state of roads and pavements Council services are worse and people notice the state of their local areas. The Government could help by ensuring that Councils are properly funded - as they used to be.