SIR – We learn that South Yorkshire and Humberside Fire Authorities have spent £3m on new appliances which turned out to be illegally overweight for UK roads.

These have been lying idle for three years and they now propose to spend a further £700,000 stripping them down to a legal weight.

They say it’s the manufacturer’s problem, but they’ve already paid for them, so guess whose problem it is now? The taxpayers.

Which utterly incompetent official placed that contract, then authorised payment, for a product which did not satisfy that basic legal operability criterion?

And guess what? No-one will get fired.

That’s the key problem with current public services. It doesn’t matter how badly you do the job, you’ll still keep getting the salary, the bonus, the holidays, the sick-leave and the pension regardless.

I suppose we should be grateful that this did not occur in West Yorkshire. But, with specific skills like that, it would not be a surprise to learn the aforementioned purchasing manager had originally served an apprenticeship with Bradford Council.

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon