KENT County Council has defended the number of its staff earning more than £50,000 after a survey found it to be one of the top authorities for higher-paid managers.

County council Conservative leader Paul Carter said the survey by the TaxPayers' Alliance was misleading because it failed to reflect that KCC employed more staff than many other councils.

According to the TPA survey, Kent was the authority employing the second highest number of people on salaries of more than £50,000, with 713, costing nearly £45million.

In 1996-97, it employed 37. Only Birmingham was higher last year, with 823.

But when it came to the amount that cost taxpayers, KCC was further down the list, placed at 37.

Cllr Carter said: "It is hardly surprising we are close to the top when we are one of the biggest shire authorities in the country, with 45,195 staff.

"Only two per cent of this number currently earn more than £50,000. When we exclude teachers the percentage falls to 0.7 percent."

He added: "When you look at the cost per head of population we are significantly lower, 37th in the list. We pride ourselves on attracting the best staff and rewarding them."

The figures also showed 196 Medway Council employees of its estimated 10,500 staff enjoyed a salary of at least £50,000 in 2006/07 - taking £11.8 million from council coffers collectively.

The £11.8 million is up from £2.5 million in 2001/02 when 39 workers were listed as being in the top pay bracket.

Medway Council spokesman Stephen Hannington, defended Medway's figures.

He said: ""The nature of inflationary increases and the arbitrary cut-off presented by the £50,000 will inevitably present a distortion of these facts.

"We can be quite positive that there are fewer senior management posts at Medway Council now than there were when it was formed back in 1998."

According to the TPA, the average council in England and Wales employs nine times as many people on £50,000 packages than it did 10 years ago.

It claimed that the increase was "phenomenal" and outstripped the rate of inflation.

~ Read the full TaxPayers' Alliance report >>>