TAXPAYERS have footed the bill for more than £60m of council bonuses to staff ranging from chief executives to manual labourers including plumbers, gardeners and binmen.

Under a Freedom of Information Act request, it was disclosed that two of the biggest recipients include an electrician at Derby council paid £25,000 in bonuses and a plumber at Kirklees council, West Yorkshire, who received £22,000, more than doubling his £20,000 salary.

The chief executive with the biggest bonus was Peter Rogers, formerly head of Westminster council, who received £40,000 on top of his £160,000 salary.

The councils argue that the bonuses to labourers are justified because in many cases they receive them only if they finish jobs within the target time.

The revelations add to the controversy over the basic salaries of council bosses. Other disclosures have shown that the heads of Newham and Wandsworth councils in London earned more than £240,000 during 2007-8 compared with Gordon Brown’s £187,000 in that year.

The performance-related payments for 2007-8, which have been obtained by More4 News, have led John Healey, the local government minister, to renew calls to clamp down on “spiralling” council salaries.

“In a downturn the public rightly expects councils to tighten their belts with every penny possible focused on frontline service . . . I have written to councils to say they must save £1.5 billion a year through efficiency,” Healey said.

Of the 280 councils that released data, 100 said they paid bonuses totalling more than £63m, while 19 declined to say, citing privacy.

In one case a carpenter working in Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, was awarded £22,000 in bonuses.

Sandwell metropolitan borough in the West Midlands handed out £2.3m in bonuses. This included awarding seven binmen £2,000 each, partly because they had worked over Christmas.

Westminster council paid out almost £5m in bonuses during 2007-8, including the money to Rogers.

A spokesman defended the bonus for Rogers this weekend. “If you want to employ the best then you have to be prepared to pay competitive salaries and our executives are worth every penny,” he said.

It is estimated that since 19 councils refused to disclose their bonus figures and a further 140 were not approached, the total awarded in bonuses could add up to more than £100m.

Birmingham council paid out £9.6m, the highest overall amount in bonuses. An employee in the highways division received the biggest sum - £26,143. The council has now abolished bonuses to cut costs.

A spokesman at Kirklees, which paid £5m in total bonuses, said that its £42,000 plumber was “extremely productive”.

Town hall rich list

TWENTY council chiefs were paid more than the prime minister last year, official figures reveal.

A town hall rich list to be unveiled tomorrow will show that the highest earning local government bosses were paid on average more than £227,000, including bonuses and redundancy payments.

As millions of private sector workers face wage cuts or freezes, many council chief executives saw their pay packages increase by more than 10% in 2007-08, according to figures obtained by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a pressure group.

John Foster, the former chief executive of Wakefield council, was paid £545,000, more than any other local government official. As well as his £205,000 salary, Foster received £340,000 in redundancy payments.

The second highest pay packet was secured by Robin Hooper, the former chief executive of Shrewsbury and Atcham council. His total remuneration exceeded £335,000, including £10,000 compensation for having his earnings made public.

Gordon Brown was paid £187,000 last year.

The special report on council bonuses will be shown tomorrow night on More4 News at 8pm

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be