Aaaargh! Life in Cornwall isn’t meant to feel like this. We are meant to be a county where we can sit back, take in the beautiful countryside and coastline, and generally enjoy a slow, relaxed pace of life.

Instead, it is beginning to feel as though I spend my life sat at a keyboard with bleeding knuckles writing more and more words on the continuing bizarre behaviour of Cornwall Council.

But when the powers that be at the authority keep on acting with such little regard for the people they are meant to be looking out for, there is not really any choice in the matter.

To explain what I mean, let’s look at three stories from the past week.

Firstly, the concessionary bus fares row came to a head last week, when plans to cut council funding for the scheme by nearly half were put on hold after a meeting between bus company bosses and councillors.

Despite the delay, council bosses still say there will have to be cuts as their funding from the government has been cut. However, while pleading poverty from one side of its mouth, the second story revealed how the council is offering a salary of nearly £20,000 for someone to organise the Olympic torch relay through the county next May.

Yes, that’s £20,000 to ensure the torch goes through Cornwall for ONE day.

Now, call me naive, but is there no one in the council’s ranks already capable of undertaking this task?

Surely if you are claiming to have to reduce the number of free bus services for pensioners and the disabled because of a lack of funds, there is no way you should be spending money on creating this new job.

It has been said the torch could bring in around £7million to Cornwall’s economy through visitors attracted to see its progress through the county – but, as it is also going to travel to every other part of the UK over a two-month period, that claim makes little sense.

Talking of little sense, on to the third story. Kevin Lavery, chief executive of Cornwall Council, took a much vaunted five per cent pay cut this year – and yet he received an extra £6,500 in wages and benefits, bringing his overall package to over £245,000.

The authority has defended this by saying the extra money was a £9,500 expenses payment for having to move house.

I am sure the average Packet reader can sympathise with this. I mean, how could you possibly afford to move house on a measly wage of just £235,000 a year?

So, as you see, we are being run by people who say they cannot afford to fully fund free bus services for the vulnerable, but feel that their own leader needs financial help to move house when he is already being paid well over ten times more than the average salary in the county.

It truly is enough to make you weep.