TOM MITCHELL (Wrong sort of jobs? Letters, February 11) expresses understandable concern about the loss of jobs at City of York Council.

In effect, the council will have had to find £74m of savings during this parliament due to government cuts.

The council will lose a quarter of its workforce as a result and every job lost can be a personal tragedy.

I am acutely aware of the effect this has on council services.But his proposed solution would have made a bad situation worse.

Taking the Government’s council tax freeze would have meant £560,000 more cuts this year, and more public servants losing their jobs.

If we had taken it every year that the opposition has urged us to, we would have had to cut £3.2 million more.

Instead we will ask the average household to pay 37p more per week in council tax – all of which will go towards meeting the cost of caring for the increasing number of elderly and vulnerable residents in our community.

Coun James Alexander, Labour leader of City of York Council.