RE your report about another local authority – North Yorkshire County Council – preparing to axe services because of Government funding reductions (Echo, July 27).

May I remind readers, including those in local government, that over the past decade or so private sector productivity has improved by 30 per cent while public sector productivity has dropped by about three per cent.

There is ample “fat” in local government budgets to absorb reductions of at least 25 per cent without having to reduce the quality or quantity of services.

Councillors should be telling their officers to go back to their organisation charts and spreadsheets and find the “fat”.

Ministers in central government should be saying the same thing to their civil servants.

Lord (Digby) Jones said when he quit the last government that Westminster could provide exactly the same as it does now with half the staff – and I submit the former Confederation of British Industry leader knows what he is talking about.

So, I call on all elected representatives, at all levels, to stop planning to cut services, but to cut costs and improve efficiency first. When they’ve improved public sector productivity to a level even close to that in private business, they can then talk about cutting services – not before.

Derek Thornton, Stanley Crook, Co Durham.