Councils spend £6m on just 46 employees

The 46 best-paid council staff in the Westcountry together received more than £6 million last year, according to new figures released today.

Councils in Devon and Cornwall forked out £6,222,114 to those in receipt of more than £100,000 in 2011-2, according to the Taxpayers' Alliance annual town hall rich list.

Although that figure represents a decrease of more than £1 million on the previous financial year, the detailed report showed that several councils in the South West had increased the number of £100,000-plus pay packets they paid to employees.

According to the figures, Taunton Deane Borough Council in Somerset increased the amount of £100,000-plus remuneration packages it paid by six, while Devon County Council and Cornwall Council increased their £150,000-plus payouts by two each.

The claims have been hotly contested by the local authorities, which attributed some changes to redundancies and pension payouts, and said others were not correct.

However, the Tax Payers' Alliance criticised the amount of compensation public sector employees are paid to move from one job to another, and said it conflicted with council tax increases.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said a general decrease may only be down to some authorities paying "eye-watering" redundancy bills.

He said: "Sadly, too many local authorities are still increasing the number of highly paid staff on their payroll, some of whom are given hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation just to move from one public sector job to another.

"Residents won't be impressed if their council pleads poverty when it is demanding more and more council tax, only then to spend it creating more town hall tycoons."

The figures show that on all councils in Devon and Cornwall there were 46 employees in receipt of a six-figure wage in 2011-12, but with most managing to trim their payments to top earners.

Devon County Council cut its wage bill by more than half a million by reducing six-figure payments to more than six members of staff. It claimed to have only paid £150,000-plus salaries to a head teacher and two exiting members of staff, however the taxpayers' alliance recorded five payments over the top salary bracket.

In Cornwall, where former chief executive Kevin Lavery famously trimmed his £200,000 pay packet by 5% in 2011, the council cut over £95,000 from its £100,000-plus salaries. It too rejected claims from the alliance that it increased its £150,000 salary payments to six employees from four and said it now employees just five staff on a £100,000-plus salary rather than the 12 listed for 2011-12.

A spokesman said: "Cornwall Council is one of the largest unitary councils in England with an annual budget of £1.2 billion delivering more than 700 services to local people, from fixing the roads and collecting the bins to caring for the elderly and safeguarding children. We have significantly reduced our management structure since becoming a unitary council in 2009."

Taunton Deane Borough Council said it just employed one person with a six-figure salary and that the seven listed by the alliance were down to pension-strain payments and redundancies.