IT was annoying to learn that the BBC is planning to discontinue the issue of free TV licences to all those aged 75 and over.

That organisation needs the additional income it would receive, it insists, to maintain the existing channels it provides.

I would suggest that first of all it looks closer to home, and decimates the outlandish and outrageously high salaries it pays to presenters and the masses of other staff it employs, and which cannot by any means be justified.

It would be pleasing if the BBC were to rid itself of this expense, appoint others, and there will be many, many people who would be equally competent, to replace them, and who should be paid the national average salary, or perhaps generously, a tad more.

A decent electrician or plumber is after all, worth more to me than any TV or radio personality.

Bobby Meynell, Stockton-on-Tees