Four top officers at Cheshire East Council earned more than £100,000 – including one interim staff member who was paid £112,404 for six months' work.

If pension and other benefits are included, eight individual staff members cost the council more than £100,000 between April 2021 and March 2022.

Figures released by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) for this period – which are also published in the accounts on the council's website – show chief executive Dr Lorraine O'Donnell was the top annual earner on £180,083.

This is up nearly £25,000 from the previous year, when she earned £155,175.

Chief executive Dr Lorraine O'Donnell (Photo: Cheshire East Council)

The massive increase is because the chief executive, who is also returning officer, received an extra £33,382, in fees and pension contributions, for overseeing the police & crime commissioner elections as well as parish and borough council by-elections held between April 2021 and March 2022.

The total amount Cheshire East paid for its chief exec over the year – including pension contributions – amounted to £241,131. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earns £164,951.

Next on Cheshire East's list was Jane Burns, executive director of corporate services, who earned £119,955.

Monitoring officer David Brown, the director of governance and compliance, earned £103,092.

The council paid an additional £40,665 in pension contributions for the executive director of corporate services and £34,948 for the monitoring officer.

Dr O'Donnell said: "It is important to recognise that Cheshire East, like other local authorities, pays the necessary market rate to attract the right people with the necessary skills and experience.

​"Following restructure, senior managers have also taken on much wider responsibilities, while continuing to deliver frontline services and value for money for residents during a period of really significant challenges.

"Not the least of these has been emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic to face major inflationary pressures on council budgets and rising demand for services for our most vulnerable residents."

Cheshire East also paid out a whopping £112,404 for an interim director of children's services, who was in post until September 2021 – a period of six months.

A council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The council required specialist expertise in children's services, following a restructure to better meet the demands of adults and children's services, whilst recruitment was under way.

"This was for a short, planned period and was accommodated within the existing overall senior management budget."

According to the TPA's 'town hall rich list' the number of officials nationwide receiving more than £100,000 was 2,759, of which 721 received more than £150,000.

Of the 10 local authorities with the most employees receiving more than £100,000, eight were in London.

The TPA figures show the managing director of Guildford Council received the highest remuneration of any council employee in the country, raking in £607,633 in total remuneration, including a £107,195 salary, £339,158 pension contribution and £5,688 in benefits.