CAN I ask why Graham Turner, the chief executive officer of North Somerset Council, is allowed to go out to a recruitment agency in order to employ someone whose job will be to teach council staff how to speak to people on the phone and deal with customer

CAN I ask why Graham Turner, the chief executive officer of North Somerset Council, is allowed to go out to a recruitment agency in order to employ someone whose job will be to teach council staff how to speak to people on the phone and deal with customers, at a cost of £765 per day?Cllr Mike Roe complains "the salary demonstrated a cavalier use of taxpayers money". How right he is.Why has it taken so long for this information to come out into the open? Surely there have been meetings where this new requirement has been discussed and permission given to the chief executive to go ahead and contact outside suppliers. Are they saying we do not have anyone at all, already working for the council, able to undertake this straightforward task? Whenever I have contacted the council by phone I have always found them efficient and helpful. All this was started last summer. I ask myself why it had to be kept under wraps. It's all very well saying the government is funding £1.1million of the £3.9 million costs of this questionable project but let us not forget that still leaves the ratepayers paying out £2.8 million for it.LAURENCE F ORME - Shrubbery Avenue, Weston