Kent County Council has 24 senior staff earning more than £100,000 - the highest number of any authority in the south east - according to a survey by the campaign group Taxpayers Alliance.

The council is one of the largest authorities in the country and would be expected to have a higher proportion of staff on higher pay packages.

However, there may be renewed sensitivity about pay packages in local government with council tax bills rising by as much as 5% this year.

The survey by the Taxpayers Alliance, based on data from 2017-18, revealed that the council’s former adult social care director Andrew Ireland received total remuneration of £261,641 - of which £111,041 was listed as compensation paid for loss of office.

David Cockburn, the strategic corporate services director, was the highest paid officer, with a salary of £199,000 and overall remuneration of £203,054.

According to the figures, the former children’s services director Patrick Leeson received more than £33,000 in compensation and a salary of £126,663. He left KCC in 2017 and is now board chairman of The Education People, a company set up by KCC to sell education support services to schools.

One senior officer received remuneration of £187,000 but their identity and job title were not provided.

"Many local authorities are now responding to financial reality through further tax rises and reducing services rather than scaling back top pay...” John O'Connell

Kent has scaled back executive pay in recent years and no longer pay bonuses to senior staff. It now operates without a chief executive. And it has less than half the number of staff earning £100,000 or more than Essex - which has 55.

The survey highlighted the remuneration of the former chief executive of Folkestone and Hythe council - formerly Shepway. Alistair Stewart received £333,951 but that included a redundancy payoff of £179,196.

Medway council had nine senior staff on earnings of more than £100,000 with chief executive Neil Davies top on £157,843.

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The average council tax bill has gone up by more than £900 over the last twenty years and spending has gone through the roof. Disappointingly, many local authorities are now responding to financial reality through further tax rises and reducing services rather than scaling back top pay.”

A Kent County Council spokesman said: “We are the largest county council in the country with an annual revenue budget of £2.2 billion so it’s not a surprise that we invariably feature high up in these league tables.

“To remain as one of the best-performing public agencies in the country we must retain and attract the very best people to continue delivering the most effective and efficient public services.

“Our salaries are benchmarked and are in line with the level of responsibility and all staff have the same conditions of employment no matter what grade they are on.

“Over the past few years we have faced a huge financial challenge and we continue to work hard to protect the services that make the greatest difference to people’s lives.

“We have not tried to hide these figures and all of our directors’ salaries and allowances are available on our website..." KCC

“We are one of Kent's largest employers and procure some £800 million worth of goods each year while our social care services deal with some 34,000 adults and 2,000 children.

“This is a huge responsibility and we believe in having the very best people to ensure the very best for our residents.

“We have not tried to hide these figures and all of our directors’ salaries and allowances are available on our website.

“As an authority we embraced the government’s code of practice on public sector pay transparency and publish all salaries over £50,000 as well.”

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