In the final week of consultation on potential changes to our council boundaries the information released by the Taxpayers Alliance (Revealed: Seven council staff in York earnt £100k or more last year, April 8) was at least illuminating for one thing.

While York’s slimmed down senior management featured only seven members of staff with a salary over £100,000, North Yorkshire’s wage bill included 27. Hardly efficiency of scale.

In order to protect our key frontline staff and services as much as possible, we have focussed on back office efficiencies and streamlining of senior management.

That is why the removal of the most senior post will see savings of £124k in the first year with a full restructure delivering savings of £1million over five years.

While Leeds City Council employ 18 senior staff costing almost £2m, we have slimmed our top tier down to three, totalling less than £350k.

We make no apologies for this. This delivers real savings that allow frontline services to be protected. We will continue to do what is in the best interests of our residents not what we can do to grab a cheap headline.

Nigel Ayre,

Executive member for finance and performance,

City of York Council, West Offices, York