FURIOUS trade union leaders have attacked a council for paying its top officer more than any other authority in the West Midlands.

The GMB has published figures revealing that former Staffordshire County Council chief executive Ron Hilton earned £242,842 in salary and pension contributions last year.

That outstrips the £233,097 paid to the chief officer of Birmingham City Council, the UK's largest local authority.

Mr Hilton retired in April and has been replaced by Nick Bell.

The figures come as the authority tries to find savings of £120 million over the next three years.

GMB regional secretary Joe Morgan hit out at the fact that councils which are planning large-scale job cuts to trim their budgets are also handing over "obscene" salaries to the figures who will wield the axe.

He said: "Council workers will be sickened to learn how much their bosses are creaming off.

"This is at a time when councils say they are hard-up and are slashing jobs and services, while telling staff to put up with a pay freeze.

"You have to ask what our elected councillors are doing, voting through such obscene remuneration packages."

Staffordshire County Council leader, Conservative Philip Atkins, defended Mr Hilton's pay deal, saying: "We value all of our employees and value their continued hard work and commitment.

"Ron Hilton retired having done a tremendous job for Staffordshire. His contractual annual salary was £198,000.

"Staffordshire County Council is a £1.24 billion organisation and the eighth largest authority in the country.

"Our new chief executive's annual salary is £195,000.

"Not only must he head an authority that provides services to 830,000 people, but must find savings of £120 million over the next three years while making improvements."

Mr Atkins added the authority was "absolutely committed to driving down costs and providing excellent value for money".

Stoke-on-Trent City Council's chief executive, John van de Laarschot, is listed as being paid £58,725 in 2009/10 as he did not officially take on the role until January 4 this year.

The post was originally advertised with a salary of up to £195,000, but based on the GMB figure for the final quarter of the year, Mr van de Laarschot could be receiving as much as £235,000 a year when pension contributions are included.

In a brief statement last night, Mr van de Laarschot simply said that his basic salary was "within the advertised pay scale of £195,000" and did not elaborate on the overall figure.

Cheshire East Council's chief executive Erika Wenzel received £229,291 last year.

The authority said that comprised £188,916 in basic salary and £39,295 in pension contributions and other expenses, including election fees paid by central government.

The council's leader, Conservative, Wesley Fitzgerald said: "Given that we are the ninth largest unitary authority in England and Wales, the chief executive's salary is entirely appropriate for an organisation of this size.

"The remuneration package was agreed democratically by the cabinet members and reflects the complexity of the role, challenges faced and size of the authority."

But Mr Morgan added: "There are good chief executives who deserve a decent salary for running multi-billion pound authorities.

"But there are also hundreds of thousands of care assistants, school dinner ladies, refuse staff, social workers, classroom assistants and street cleaners who also deserve decent pay, not the pittance that they are on."