I FOUND your comparison of chief executives’ pay in the North- East interesting (Echo, July 25), but a little disingenuous: you mention that Hambleton’s chief executive’s pay is one of the lowest in the North-East and North Yorkshire, but fail to mention that Hambleton is one of seven districts in North Yorkshire.

So the total bill for chief executives is the sum of those seven plus the £170,000 paid to the North Yorkshire County Council chief executive. Durham, on the other hand, which you put at the top of the table for chief executives’ pay, is a unitary council, ie it has no districts, and the Durham County Council chief executive is the only person on the chief executive’s pay grade. So, overall, Durham pays its chief executive less than North Yorkshire pays its chief executives.

You make no mention of the area covered by the various authorities, nor of the number of employees each chief executive is responsible for.A chart giving such information would probably look very different, and might even have a different authority at the top.

Not such a good story though, is it?

Sylvia Raine, Durham.