Sir — In a personal statement, councillor Mitchell reassured us that the county council is looking at all options for making the required savings and has an open mind about the outcome of the library service consultation.

It is hard to reconcile that with the consultation document, which only presents one proposal, the one which Mr Mitchell has appeared to favour all along.

How much better it would have been if the document had presented all the options, with a simple description and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Instead it gives space to ‘motherhood’ statements and almost qualifies for the Ministry of Defence compliment, ‘never mind the quality, feel the weight’.

Seriously: The document also reveals intentions which are inappropriate at this time. For instance, rather than redesigning the website, let’s devote all our efforts to keeping all the libraries open and staffed by professionals. Let’s forgo free Wi-Fi and ‘direct communication with the public through social media’ for the time being.

Such intentions suggest that our officials have forgotten that one solution to funding the cuts is to reduce their salaries, as Southampton is said to have done.

The best option still appears to be to cut out all proposed improvements, tell us how much the libraries have to save given that the Government has made extra funds available, reduce the opening hours of all the libraries, and reduce staff and officials’ pay proportionately.

Tough, yes, but a better basis for times to come.

Geoff Feasey, North Leigh