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KCC chief executive Peter Gilroy topped the list of best paid council bosses for 2005/6 when it was revealed he earns £229,999 a year or £4,423 a week. Prime Minister Tony Blair's salary is just £186,429. 

The figures also showed KCC’s director of education and libraries, Graham Badman, also earns more than the Prime Minister with a salary of £189,999; more than most other chief executives on councils anywhere else in Britain.

The Taxpayers Alliance gained the “fat-cat” figures through the Freedom of Information Act.

The campaigners claim council tax increases have been used to fund around 600 "fat cat" officials who each earned more than £100,000 last year.

The Conservative Kent County Council leader Paul Carter mounted a strong defence of the amounts paid to Mr Gilroy and Mr Badman.

"Kent County Council is a massive organisation with massive responsibility. I think that quite rightly Kent needs to attract the very best people to run and be responsible for services," he said.

"Mr Gilroy had proved his worth by taking Kent to the top of the council league tables, with the council being recently named as one of the best-performing in the country," he added.

But just last week the council faced widespread criticism after allegedly spending at least £90,000 on a failed US charter flight plan out of Manston Airport.

It was reported on the kentnews.co.uk website that this came just two years after the council backed EUjet, an airline which said it would fly European services out of the same airport, and handed over £100,000 of public money to the Irish company that went bust within weeks.