I DARE say all readers will sympathise wholeheartedly with teacher Karen Hall (Echo, July 20) over the disgraceful way she has been treated by Durham County Council.

By trying to wriggle out of its obligations, both moral and legal, for no less than 11 years, the council has behaved not just in a callous and arrogant way, but in a downright irresponsible one.

Sadly, such behaviour is far from being untypical. I put it down to the opportunistic nature of some councillors, and the fact that officials are more or less given free rein to do as they please. That’s not what we elect councillors for and not what we pay them for.

Tony Kelly, Crook