Kent County Council has defended its decision to recruit a new communications chief on a salary of up to £92,000 - two years after axing a similar post to save money.

The council says the person it appoints will have a wider role than its previous director, whose job was scrapped in 2014.

In a statement, the council’s corporate director Amanda Beer said the new post now included responsibility for customer relations, customer contact and the delivery of new digital products - together “designed to improve the public’s experience when communicating with Kent County Council.”

But there is said to be some unease about the new position and concerns it could expose the authority to fresh criticism of executive pay.

Ms Beer said the council had restructured in a way that meant the costs represented value for money.

“As part of the restructure which resulted in this role being introduced, a Head of Service post was deleted, so this new role has all of the previous director’s responsibility plus another service and we consider it to be good value for money.”

The council’s communications team had been cut by more than a third in the last two years.

The statement continued: “After much consideration, we have arrived at what we see as the most efficient way of communicating our policies, services and products to help taxpayers across Kent.

"We are now recruiting in a competitive market to get the best and most experienced person for the job.”

The recruitment advert says would-be applicants will need to “shape a world class strategy” and “build an engaging brand.”

It states: “Uniting best practice innovation with exceptional customer focus, you will boost resident engagement and strengthen Kent’s reputation both regionally and nationally.”