THIS Labour Government continues to waste taxpayers' money on employing a new army of bureaucrats instead of producing real improvements in front line public services. Government figures recently published showed a rise in civil service staff numbers of 19,630. The number of permanent civil servants last October stood at 499,630, compared with 480,000 a year before.

The new tax credits system alone is so complex that an additional 2,000 pen-pushers have been recruited just to prepare for its introduction.

Cllr Andy Morgan

(Hulton Park Ward)