NO ONE likes to see an increase in their bills and especially council tax.

I note that the Wirral increase was just a fraction under the percentage figure which would have triggered a local referendum which, I suspect, would have definitely caused it to be rejected.

I would be more sanguine about giving Wirral Council more of my money if I could be assured that, as in previous years, it was not going to be ill used.

The council has a long history of financial mismanagement and we know it.

Outside consultants, many I suspect re-cycled former employees of other councils, seem to proliferate at eye-watering daily fees.

We know, thanks to the Wirral Globe, that one such consultant was paid just under £1,000 a day which is nine months council tax on my modest bungalow.

Senior executives are paid lavish salaries and no doubt well funded fringe benefits.

Failed executives are rewarded with amounts that most council tax payers can only dream of and their details and their pay-offs seem to be deliberately concealed from those of us who fund them.

Next month will give Wirral residents the opportunity to change the complexion of the council.

But I suspect many of the same spendthrift incompetents will be voted back into the town hall.

Charles Nunn, Upton