IN an age of savage cuts it always amazes me that somehow money can be found for "special projects".

One windfall will be used to tempt a suitable candidate for the post of Wirral Council chief executive.

The powers that be have upped the salary by an enticing £40k to £175,000.

This has caused gasps of disbelief from readers of the Globe as you can see on-line in the comments section...

I know some people who never even got near £40,000 when being made redundant.

This employment package puts new meaning on the term “Job Seekers Allowance.”

A "top-up" payment for a post that, quite frankly, nobody outside of the town hall knows what the person who holds it actually does to earn such a pay-packet.

The out-going CEO is taking early retirement. He takes up a job with a housing company in April.

But why leave a job where the term "Fastest Improving Council" is an enviable publicity motto?

A description that any chief can and should build on as they oversee even more cuts in services.

Surely Wirral residents have a right to say who represents them - even when it comes to high-powered civil servants?

Residents elect councillors and would certainly vote in a referendum should we opt for a Metro Mayor. And residents will vote in a new Government in May, 2015.

Some people say what about a shared CEO – can't this idea be explored?

How about a public meeting to explain where the council will find this £40k when schools are closing and lollipop men and women have to hang up their white coats.

The apolitical Inferno suggests that before the head-hunters put forward someone for interview by a politically balanced panel of councillors they tell every taxpayer via a letter to every household of the short-list so we can see the calibre of candidates through their CVs and their mission statements for the borough.

WHILE watching a recent edition of the hit TV show Come Dine with Me I was pleased to see the cameras come to Wirral.

The show's voice-over narrator, Dave Lamb, did, however, irritate me by constantly referring to the dinner hosts as coming from "THE Wirral."

But after a week of this term it grew on me and I started to like it.

It gave the borough an identity just like THE Cotswolds or THE English Riviera.

I can see it now on posters… "Visit THE Wirral – land of stunning sunsets and double rainbows."

It certainly beats "Wirral - near Liverpool" which is often used by people down south to describe where we actually are.

THE driving test is changing.

It seems the tortuous three-point turn and reversing around a corner could go. I recall one of my many driving tests where the examiner didn’t ease my nerves instead he made them worse.

The Basil Fawlty look-a-like sighed: "My, my we are having problems," when I stalled as I left the test centre and turned the windscreen wipers on by accident.

I wish it had rained to make it look intentional. On the way back to the centre I showed him how good I was at emergency stops by throwing in an unexpected one to avoid, ironically, a black cat.

Wiping the sweat from his trilby-topped brow, he tested me on the Highway Code finally showing me a picture of a triangle with a reindeer asking what it stood for?

I said: "Approaching Norway."

Even though I did get a failure chit, I did enjoy the last laugh.

GRANT’S TV Rant: I am consistently forced to turn the volume down as the UK’s funny men and women turn up the decibels to scream and complain about the woes of modern life.

Listen to the great comedians like Les Dawson, Eric and Ernie and America's Bob Hope and George Burns. These comics didn't need to resort to bad language and cruel and cynical material.

Now on TV we have Russell Howard and Rhod Gilbert unrelentingly bullying us into laughing.

Lee Evans should go on an anger management course instead of using audiences as ear-bashing therapy sessions.

Peter Grant