TOP ranking council staff should take a pay cut to help save money, according to the leader of the opposition.

Dave Blackwell, leader of the Canvey Island Independent Party, was speaking after it was revealed Castle Point Council’s 30 top earning officers took home £1.9million combined last year – an average of more than £63,000 each.

The council plans to shave £500,000 from its staffing budget next year as it tries to make total savings of £1.5million with redundancies not ruled out.

Mr Blackwell said the cuts should come from the pay of its most senior officers.

He added: “I can’t believe how much this council is paying it’s top officers. This is not Essex County Council, it’s a tiny authority. £500,00 is a massive saving and there’s no way they’re going to be able to do that without losing jobs.

“I don’t want to see people out of work when there’s a much simpler solution – reduce some of these big salaries.”

Castle Point Council has an annual budget of about £14million, whereas nearby Basildon Council spends more than double at £31million.

Between April 2010 and April 2011, Castle Point Council’s chief executive David Marchant will take home £176,593 including pension and contributions, while Basildon chief executive Bala Mahendran is on £183,136.

The average earning of a chief executive of a borough or district-sized authority is £118,000, according to research by Incomes Data Services.

Mr Blackwell’s calls come as Eric Pickles, Minister for Communities, has demanded all council officers with salaries of more than £58,000 should be named, as part of his war on public sector waste.

Mr Marchant and the authority’s three other top earners – joint strategic directors Davinia Board and Andrew Roby-Smith, and assistant chief executive Craig Watts – all took pay cuts last year of between 2.5 and 5 per cent, saving the authority £17,000.

This year their pay will be frozen, but Mr Blackwell wants them to go further.

He said: “There are simply too many senior staff on big salaries at Castle Point Council. Do we really need all these high paid positions?”

All councillors are set to take a ten per cent pay cut on their allowances.

A spokesman for Castle Point Council said: “The salaries of staff are largely set by what they get paid elsewhere in the market.

“The chief executive and his two assistants do a very good job for Castle Point and we leave it up to the chief executive as to how he implements staff budget cuts, as it’s clearly his job.

“He has consulted with staff and the message came back that rather than salary reductions, they would rather we go for a reorganisation of roles.”