Most citizens will agree with The Press’s editorial (Bold move by council chief, December 4) that the loss of managerial posts at the council is not a reason for us to gloat. The question on many lips will be, if these posts are not essential, why were they created in the first place, and what has that decision cost the council taxpayers in our wonderful city?

David H Meek, Yarburgh Way, York.

• Kersten England, chief executive of City of York Council, said: “I have seen first hand the hard work and dedication of the council’s managers and I recognise that reducing the number of posts will be a significant challenge.

“The council has operated for a number of years within a demanding financial context and like many public organisations is faced with even tighter constraints in the future.

“By streamlining how the authority operates and by improving its responsiveness to the needs of customers, I believe it will be possible to reduce the number of managers without compromising service quality at the front line.

“But this will mean making tough choices about priorities, doing things differently and stopping doing things which are of little value to our customers or are unnecessarily bureaucratic.

“This work is already well under way, alongside the organisational review, as part of the More For York programme, in which a number of key services have been reviewed to ensure they are operating as efficiently as possible.

“This work has included examining how we can better work with partner organisations in the city to deliver services in collaboration.”