This seems an odd time for the Somerset Council leader to be praising the chief finance officer, when that officer is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountancy which has recently awarded the council just one star out of five for financial management. He was also in post when the council received five statutory recommendations criticising performance.

The first quarterly report of the council's £20m Inspiring Innovation consultancy for advice on how to save money told us of 'a whole council diagnostic' which is much bigger than the failed Liberal Democrat Southwest One outsourcing.

The second quarterly report confirms our worst suspicions of this potentially predatory contract which is much stronger on activity, capability-building and future benefits than on evidenced delivery of cashable savings.

In Wave One five projects have entered delivery while in Wave two eleven opportunities are still being explored and developed into future business cases.

Most strikingly, four years after winning authority to merge councils, Future Council Design is distant Wave 3

In 2007 Wiltshire voted for a unitary council and has probably saved at least £200m by simply redesigning services across Wiltshire using existing managers with about £8m external IT support.

Somerset residents deserve to know why these perfectly normal business reforms were not prioritised from the outset and why, years after reorganisation began, the council is still paying consultants to identify opportunities that should have been implemented long ago by highly paid senior managers.

Chris Mann, Taunton.

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