FIGURES for payments to a former Dorset County Council officer released by the Taxpayers Alliance have been criticised for being ‘retrospective and inaccurate’ by the current council.

The Alliance claims the highest paid employee at the former Dorset County Council in 2018-19 received an income of £278,000 – which, it claims, was the largest council salary package in the UK.

It claims the total sum paid to former Dorset Council chief executive, Debbie Ward amounted to £302,000 when a £24,000 employer’s pension contribution is added in. But Dorset Council, which took over from DCC a year ago, said in a statement: “The quote from the Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) is a retrospective and inaccurate view of the previous Dorset County Council.

“Consistently the TPA confuses contractual contributions to an individual’s pension (set by national legislation) and salary payments thereby inflating the numbers to create headlines.

“The figures in the article for 2018/19 are incorrect. The former county council published full figures at the time, but during a global pandemic it is not something we intend to spend time responding to further.”

However, figures from the Local Democracy Reporting service say the overall figures quoted by the Alliance are broadly in line with those released by the former council at the time Ms Ward left its employment.

It says that the Alliance has added together her salary and redundancy payment, together with other payments in lieu of leaving before her contract ended which inflates the amount she was paid in her final year.

All of the payments are an entitlement in law.

The ‘Town Hall Rich List’, compiled by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, follows calls from the pressure group for council tax to be frozen and funds to be focused on frontline health and social care services amid the coronavirus crisis.

The list has been branded “inane and distasteful” by Solace, which represents chief executives in local government across the UK. The TPA says at least 13 employees at the former council received six-figure salaries in 2018-19 while nationally, the number of people employed by local authorities receiving more than £100,000pa, has gone up by over 10 per cent.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said household budgets are being squeezed further through “crushing council tax rises”.

“It is crucial councils have good quality people to deliver good quality public services.”