Kent County Council says it will not be disclosing details of how much its highest paid officers received in bonuses last year.

The KM Group reported earlier this year how the authority’s highest paid officials between them received £102,247 in bonuses in 2007-2008, on top of their six-figure salaries.

But the individual sums paid out to chief officers were not revealed because KCC said it would breach the Data Protection Act.

The council says it is sticking by that decision and has rejected a formal appeal made by the KM Group under the Freedom of Information Act for details of the sums awarded to individuals.

It says disclosure of the details would be unfair to the individuals concerned and has maintained its argument that it would represent a breach of the Data Protection Act, which affords protection to people about their personal financial position.

We had argued there was a public interest case for the individual sums to be disclosed on the grounds that the detailed information would enable people to take a view about whether they were justified and corresponded with their experience of services they received from the council.

We also said legislation planned by the Government is expected to require the disclosure of such details. In March, John Healey, the Local Government minister, announced a consultation on the plans that would require councils to set out full details for around 2,500 specifically identified senior posts covering salary, bonuses, pensions, perks and compensation pay-offs.

The county council’s seven-strong chief officers’ group has already agreed to forfeit any bonus payments in 2009-2010 following a decision to award staff a one per cent pay increase.

In a statement, KCC said: “We are puzzled by this further query from the KM. We believe the public interest has been fully served by the information we have already provided about the total remuneration received by each of our Chief Officers - of which there are seven.

“We have been totally transparent in our reporting of these amounts. There is no story here and we do not understand why the KM is suggesting that KCC is reluctant to release relevant and appropriate information on this issue.”