THE “pay peanuts and you get monkeys” argument is inclined to come to the fore in the debate about public sector executive salaries.

A public sector organisation as large as Durham County Council clearly has huge and expensive responsibilities and, therefore, requires high quality managers.

We accept that they do not come cheaply.

But it is a question of balance and there will be legitimate public concern that Durham County Council is able to save £175,000 a year with the removal of a single management post, as revealed in today’s edition of The Northern Echo.

Taxpayers are justified in questioning whether seven senior county council managers, costing more than £1.3m, represents good value for money.

We appreciate that £3.65m has been saved in management costs in the county since the radical 2009 reorganisation, which abolished the district councils.

But at a time of enforced and painful austerity, salaries at the top tier of local authorities remain an area open to public scrutiny – because ordinary people simply perceive them to be extraordinarily high.

And let us not forget that the higher the salary, the higher the redundancy payout.

There are senior council executives across the country who will not have found it a particular hardship to volunteer to move on.