I DON’T have much time for politicians of any hue and it seems to me that the coalition Government is already heading off in entirely the wrong direction.

However, if there is one Cabinet member who has earned my respect and admiration, it is Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, – above – an ex-grammar school boy, just like me.

So when I read political correspondent Rob Merrick’s diatribe against him (Echo, Feb 3) I was initially quite shocked and dismayed.

But these feelings were quickly replaced by the rosy glow of contentment when I realised that Mr Pickles is hitting his targets and hitting them hard.

I refer, of course, to the bloated Labour-run North-East councils which have doubled council tax and engaged in a massive spending spree at our expense.

Readers may be interested to know that in 1996-97 there were 106 North-East council employees earning more than £50,000 per annum. Ten years later the number had exploded to 1,404. The corresponding salary bill is £6.5m rising to £100m.

Even allowing for reasonable cost of living increases this is a massive price to pay for services which have hardly improved and may well have deteriorated.

As for Mr Merrick, regular readers have come to expect this kind of thing from him.

David Lacey, Durham.