A town hall rich list has sparked uproar after claiming that at least 2,525 council staff, including 88 in the west, have received more than £100,000 in payments.
The annual list, compiled by the Taxpayers Alliance, shows the total remuneration which local authority personnel have received in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.
But councils say the list is inaccurate and misleading. They argue that some entries on the list include one-off redundancy packages where the staff concerned earned well under £100,000 as an annual salary.
The report shows an 11 per cent drop in total remuneration for staff on more than £100,000 on the previous year.
Figures for Bath and North East Somerset Council, which the alliance says come from official annual reports, show an increase from six to nine managers on more than £100,000 between 2010/11 and 2011/12.
But the authority insists that there only seven such staff in the last financial year, and that the total has fallen to six in the current year.
The salary being paid to its chief executive Jo Farrar is a tenth of that paid to her predecessor John Everitt, who retired last year.
The authority said: "In order to support our priorities of protecting frontline services, investing in new homes and jobs for local people, and no increases in council tax, Bath and North East Somerset Council is reducing senior management costs and becoming more financially efficient.
"Achieving this aim is going according to plan. In 2011/12 there were 65 members of staff receiving a salary of £50,000-plus, whilst in 2012/13 there were 61 (excluding redundancy pay which the council must pay in accordance with employment law). This is one of the lowest numbers compared to other similar-sized local authorities in the region.
"There will be further restructuring of the council over the coming years that will reduce senior management costs even more."
According to the alliance, the highest paid local government chief across the UK was Katherine Kerswell, former group managing director of Kent County Council. Her total remuneration including redundancy was said to be £589,165.
Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the alliance, said: "It is good news that the number of senior council staff making more than £100,000 a year is finally falling, although that may only be because many authorities have finished paying eye-watering redundancy bills. 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."
The alliance's figures were challenged in Gloucestershire and Somerset as well.
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