IT is interesting that, for a council which is struggling to find £20m to build a brand new school for 1,000-plus pupils in the north of Stevenage – which it all but promised last year – Hertfordshire County Council last year managed to find £40m to pay t

IT is interesting that, for a council which is struggling to find £20m to build a brand new school for 1,000-plus pupils in the north of Stevenage - which it all but promised last year - Hertfordshire County Council last year managed to find £40m to pay the wages of just 647 employees.

So while the people and pupils of Great Ashby and those connected with Thomas Alleyne School are left without their brand new state-of-the-art building the council is splashing out on the so-called 'best in the business'.

It is understandable that the council needs to pay top wages in order to attract the right men and women for the job - but sometimes you have to question whether these are the best in the business because, it you recall, they made a complete hash of the Building Schools for the Future project and it is looking extremely unlikely that a new school will be built after all.

Ten years ago, the figures - which come courtesy of the Taxpayers' Alliance - show the council employed a mere 17 people who were earning £50,000-plus. That figure has since ballooned by over 3,800 per cent.

Are Hertfordshire's residents getting value for money?