I WAS, on the morning of May 3, afforded a revealing glimpse of the attitude of the officers (and perhaps of the members) of Wycombe District Council to the old persons living in their fiefdom, and of the degree of competence of those officers.

I was telephoned by a man speaking for the council, who asked me for up to ten minutes of my time answering questions about my impressions of that body.

In the wild hope that Wycombe District Council had at last repented so far as to ask taxpayers for their opinions on its conduct of affairs, I assented.

I was asked my age. I gave it (I am over 80); whereupon, without excuse or apology, the interrogator terminated the questioning.

I certainly knew before this incident how little the council, whose charges we pay, cares about the interests of the pensioners who contribute to those payments, but, even so, this brutal dismissal came as something of a shock.

The brutality was bad enough, but the incompetence and the waste of time and money were perhaps worse: after all, my age is in the reference books.

The council's interrogator could easily have prefaced his remarks by indicating that the survey was confined to a certain age group. Both, evidently, much too difficult for Wycombe District Council.

G L W Bonney ,Wooburn Green