Sir, – Thankfully, because of the incompetence of a government agency, the massive Smallford development by Oaklands College cannot now go ahead. Instead of the massive building project feeding traffic to an already-congested road, I suggest that the ver

Sir, - Thankfully, because of the incompetence of a government agency, the massive Smallford development by Oaklands College cannot now go ahead. Instead of the massive building project feeding traffic to an already-congested road, I suggest that the very pleasant building should be refurbished and used as a large secondary school to cater for the children in the huge housing estates built in eastern St Albans in recent years.

Incidentally, the resigned head of the said innumerate government agency was paid �200,000 a year. As with the Herts CC chief executive who lost �30million in Iceland, I wonder what the criterion is for paying these inflated salaries. Worse than dubious is the recent business where auditors have caught a government agency paying redundancy to staff that it then re-hired. Surely, public concern now requires a remuneration committee to be set up by the County Council having members who do not have a finger in the pie. A sinking government is not likely to do anything about its Quangos, except to write more IOUs to raise the money to pay them with.

Richard Durrant,

Park Avenue,

St Albans.