PAYING an 'overinflated' combined salary of more than £670,000 per year to five council chief executives in Buckinghamshire has been branded 'madness' at a time of cuts.

A Government crackdown on top council earners was announced last week.

All council staff earning over £100,000 will have their salaries publicly approved by councillors.

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has repeatedly called for bosses to slash their pay.

Last week he told councils to make public all earners above £58,000.

And now Prime Minister David Cameron has hit out at Manchester City Council, saying it should cut bureaucracy and its chief executive's pay before making cuts to services.

Buckinghamshire County Council has approved £56m of cuts over three years, with services like libraries and day centres under threat.

Dr John Lean from Beaconsfield this week wrote to BCC Chief Executive Chris Williams to ask how he could justify his salary.

Mr Williams is the county's top earner at £207,000.

His pay was voluntarily frozen last year and will remain so next year.

BCC said, not only is it the biggest employer in the county, Mr Williams is responsible for managing a budget bigger than many FTSE 100 companies whose bosses earn much more.

But Bourne End resident Peter Willingham, a leading campaigner against the closure of day centres, disagreed with this argument.

Ex-management consultant Mr Willingham used to examine the salaries of top bosses and merchant bankers in the City of London.

He said it was "unfair" to compare Mr Williams' and other council chief executives' pay with a commercial organisation.

"All they have to do is manage processes, not the easiest of jobs admittedly, but it's nothing like the degree of difficulty of managing something where you have to go out and fight for everything, with the income and expenditure in a true commercial environment."

He said the public sector paid 'overinflated' salaries.

Mr Williams reiterated this week previous comments to the Free Press, in which he said the Government was scapegoating bosses like himself and pointed out half his salary goes to back to Whitehall in tax.

Wycombe District Council, the fourth largest district council in the country, noted that its chief executive, Karen Satterford, was responsible for an organisation comparable to medium to large sized companies.

It said: "Like any large organisation, we are competing in the open market to recruit and retain good quality staff."

Wycombe District Councillor Gary Hall, Independent, said the salaries emphasised his argument for a radical cash-saving council merger.

He said salaries were "too much" with day centres and libraries "threatening to fall apart around us".

He said: "It's coming out of our pockets. If less people can do the same job and save us literally hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process then it should be looked at.

"It just shows the madness of this county and district council system, the fact it's out of date."

"We're throwing money down the drain. We're not allocating it where it best serves the people.

WDC Leader Lesley Clarke said: "We don't just pluck these figures out of the air. We are on points of scales agreed nationally."

Speaking about the possibility of amalgamating roles between council bosses in future, she said: "We're joining up services where we can, eventually that might be one of the things that happen in the future, but it's not going to be today or tomorrow."

BCC has 14,000 employees and an annual budget of over £300million, providing more than 100 services and "consistently rates as the highest performing county in the country", the authority said.

It pointed out Mr Williams has carried reviews for other councils on performance improvement reviews and for the Ministry of Defence.

He chairs the Bucks Children's Trust, is responsible for all children's safety issues in the county. He is the Chief Executive for voluntary group South East England Councils.

BCC, Wycombe District Council and Chiltern District Council, already publish online all expenses over £500 and staff earning above £58,000, while South Bucks District Council publishes salaries of the Chief Executive and the two Directors.

What the Chief Execs get: BCC: Chris Williams Chief Executive £207,000. Pay frozen

WDC: Karen Satterford Chief Executive £140,487 WDC said her salary "is currently frozen and we are not aware of any plans to change this for the next financial year."

CHILTERN: Alan Goodrum Chief Executive Between £95,000.00 - £99,999.00 CDC said: "The Chief Executive has had a three year pay freeze which is likely to extend at least one further year."

SOUTH BUCKS: Chief Executive £92,189 CHIEF EXECUTIVE, Chris Furness Pay frozen.

AYLESBURY VALE DISTRICT COUNCIL: Chief Executive - Andrew Grant 136,232 No decisions on staff pay announced yet but freeze has been in place.