A PRESSURE group has criticised the amount Bradford Council has been paying its senior executives, saying the authority had Yorkshire's highest-paid council worker.

The TaxPayers' Alliance published its ninth annual Town Hall Rich List yesterday.

The data, from 2013-14, names then-Bradford Council chief executive Tony Reeves as the highest paid council executive in Yorkshire and the Humber, with a salary, pension and benefits package worth a total of £228,650.

Mr Reeves' replacement, Kersten England, was appointed on the same £178,000-a-year salary earlier this year.

The campaign group's figures also show in 2013-14, Bradford Council had 26 executives - 17 more than the previous year - whose total remuneration packages were worth more than £100,000.

But Labour-run Bradford Council has responded by saying the figures were out of date.

A spokesman said there were currently only six officers paid more than £100,000 a year.

He said: "In the last five years the council has reduced the number of strategic and assistant director posts and saved the council over £1 million."

The Rich List has prompted fierce debate among local politicians, with the leader of the council's Conservative group saying he is tired of the TaxPayers' Alliance criticising executive pay levels.

Councillor Simon Cooke said while he had "a lot of time for the TaxPayers' Alliance", it was time the campaign group recognised that billion-pound-turnover organisations like Bradford Council would have well-paid chief executives.

He said if the council didn't pay competitive salaries, it would lose its "very best people" to the private sector.

He said: "The argument is really marginal to the costs of the council to the taxpayer.

"They keep repeating these things time and time again. It's really not the kind of line I'm happy with at all.

"I don't think anyone who works for Bradford Council - and this is not a reflection of the quality of their work - is overpaid."

The Labour council leader, Councillor David Green, said he agreed with Cllr Cooke's comments.

He added: "The TaxPayers' Alliance would be much better spending their time worrying about the fact that services to taxpayers are being seriously eroded by Government cuts."

But the leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, took a very different view, saying the high salaries were not warranted.

She said: "We have voted against the appointment of each of these senior people in the last couple of years."

Cllr Sunderland suggested executive pay should be linked to performance, saying for example the salaries of education bosses could be linked to the number of good schools in the district.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, acknowledged that local authorities which were "providing more for less and delivering council tax cuts clearly have talented people at the helm".

But he said councils now had to look at the amount they were paying their top executives.

He said: "After more than a decade of reckless spending and council tax hikes, local politicians now have to make necessary savings and the pay and perks for the town hall elite have to come under the spotlight."