New figures have revealed the St Albans council officers who collected an annual salary of more than £100,000 for 2015-16.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has released the amounts paid to officers’ around the country, including those St Albans staff members who earned three times the average national salary.

Head of the council’s corporate services, Amanda Foley, confirmed the chief executive James Blake and head of legal services Mike Lovelady were both paid more than £100K that year.

She said: “We work to ensure that the council is managed efficiently and that employees are motivated by fairly rewarding them for the work that they do.

“In 2015-2016, we had two employees who received remuneration of above £100,000, including pay and pension contributions.

“Both have two roles, and their remuneration packages reflect these additional responsibilities.

“When we last carried out a benchmarking exercise our chief executive, who is also head of policy, had one of the lowest levels of pay for a council chief executive in Hertfordshire.”

The chief executive, James Blake, is due to leave the role in July after four and a half years.

His successor will live off a salary of £103,000, capped at £110,000 per year.

This is more than St Albans MP Anne Main’s basic salary at £74,000, Herts Police Commissioner David Lloyd on £75,000, and not much less than the Chief Constable (£140,000).

But it is still much less than the county council’s CEO, John Wood, who is on £185,000.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance figures also revealed the highest paid officer in the south east was the director of community on Fareham council, who earned £387,000 in 2015-16.

Kent county council had the most employees earning over £100,000, with 11 in total.