COUNCILS in East Lancashire have announced a cut in the number of bosses earning more than £100,000.

All six of East Lancashire’s councils appeared in the Taxpayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List for 2009-10.

Blackburn with Darwen’s chief executive Graham Burgess was the region’s top earner with £183,000, £7,000 more than the previous year.

But this year he will receive between £143,506 and £155,984, compared to his 2009-10 earnings when he received pension contributions to boost the amount he took home.

Graham Burgess, chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said the number of town hall bosses receiving more than £100,000 had been reduced to five from 10 in the past two years.

He said: "The list that has been produced by the Tax Payers Alliance gives a misleading picture. The gap between our lowest and highest paid officers is well below the national average in Blackburn with Darwen. Last year we had compulsory redundancies of chief officers with an overall reduction of 40 per cent.

"As part of our unique integration with health in the borough, I took on another role resulting in savings of £180k. Along with colleagues at all levels of the organisation there have been no pay rises, we have all taken a 1.5 per cent pay cut by agreeing unpaid leave.

Ten other senior staff at the council – two more than the year before – were also on more than £100,000 in 2009-10, including the deputy chief executive for the community and personal department, who then earned £145,000 and the regeneration and technical section’s deputy chief, who took home £140,000.

Phil Halsall, chief executive of Lancashire County Council, said: “The council is now in the second year of a three year budget which is on course to save the authority over £200m by 2014.

“An important part of this programme has been to reduce the wage bill, through measures including reducing the number of senior managers.

“Over the past 15 months we have reduced the number of executive directors and directors by 25 per cent.”

Hyndburn Council’s managing director and director for community services took home £266,725 in 2009-10 between them with the Ribble Valley’s chief executive earning £105,000.

In Pendle, three workers earned more than £100,000 in 2009-10, with the chief executive on £158,169 – almost £4,000 more than the year before.

Rossendale Council, which did not have any £100,000-plus earners in 2008-09, and Burnley Council had one staff member on top money.

According to the report, compiled using Freedom of Information Act requests, Lancashire County Council also had 19 bosses earning more than £100,000 in 2009-10, compared with 13 the previous year.

Included in this figure, however, were two headteachers, a coroner and one person on secondment, whose salary was being reimbursed by Lancashire Network.

Heather Wakefield, head of local government for the public sector union Unison said: “It is deeply unfair for low-paid council workers to be hit with a three-year pay freeze while bosses and senior managers see their pay rise by up to 50 per cent.

“Two thirds of local government workers earn less than £21,000 and are struggling.”

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be astonished that so many council employees are getting such a generous deal while everyone else in the public sector is facing a freeze.

“As millions of voters across the country prepare for local council elections, it is vital they can make an informed choice about which local authorities are delivering value for money.”