THE explanation from Test Valley council bosses as to why their staff are set to receive inflation-busting pay rises makes interesting reading.

“If we do not pay staff a sum amounting to £400,000 of taxpayers’ cash out in rises, then we will lose existing employees and fail to find sufficient replacements.”

This argument might just hold water, even if hard-pressed local residents might question why they in the private sector cannot, on the whole, use the same detail with their own bosses.

Good services need good people to deliver them, they could well accept.

But does that argument hold water when it comes to top bosses at the authority?

For, as this paper reports today, the across-the-board increases will reach right to the top of the pile at Test Valley including chief executive Roger Tetstall who earns around £148,000 a year. Should he also receive a 2.5 per cent pay rise? Is he looking to leave unless he receives such an increase in salary?

This paper does not know the answers to those questions, but the 2.5 per cent increase would be all the more acceptable to hard-pressed residents if the people at the top received sums a little less generous.