The top-paid Renfrewshire Council bosses have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from taxpayers, a 'rich list' of local authority salaries has revealed.

The figures which relate to the 2021/22 financial year show that director of finance and resources Alan Russell, who became chief executive in December 2021, received a salary of £131,520 and expenses of £5,445.

The joint-second highest paid on the list were director of environment and infrastructure services Gordon McNeil, director of children's services Steven Quinn and director of communities and housing services Mary Crearie, who all received a salary of £123,340.

All four top earners had more than £23,000 in pension contributions.

Others named on the list for Renfrewshire were Sandra Black, who retired as chief executive in December 2021 and received a salary of 107,317, and OneRen chief executive Victoria Hollows, who had a salary of £104,035.

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But the totals are far below the UK's richest council post, in Guildford, which has a salary of more than £600,000.

In all, there are 2,759 officials in the UK earning more than £100,000, of which 721 received more than £150,000. 

Westminster council alone had 50 of these highly-paid employees and of the ten local authorities with the most employees receiving more than £100,000, eight were in London.

In total, the figures showed that Scotland had 246 council employees who were on more than £100,000.

The "town hall rich list" was compiled by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA), who have the lowest possible grade for financial transparency by the campaigning and journalism website OpenDemocracy.

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Questions have previously been raised about the group's connection to 55 Tufton Street, London, where regular meetings take place between right-wing think tanks and groups backing the Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum.

The low-tax TPA linked their list to the cost-of-living struggles across the country and said council tax rises should be halted and "wasteful spending" cut.

A spokesperson for Renfrewshire Council said: "Value for taxpayer money is at the heart of everything we do. 

"The salary scale for local authority chief executives is set nationally, while senior staff salaries are set by reference to national arrangements, with no other benefits paid.

"Salaries include pension contributions which are required by law and this information is publicly available in the remuneration report in our published annual accounts."