BASILDON Council chief executive Bala Mahendran's earnings surged by a whopping 20 per cent last year, rising from £138,918 to £165,877.

Mr Mahendran's salary in 2006/7 - which includes bonuses, plus expenses, allowances and election fees - was just £23,000 shy of the £188,849 paid annually to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

It was also just £10,000 short of the £175,881 paid in the same period to Joanna Killian, chief executive of Essex County Council - whose annual budget of £2billion is almost 40 times Basildon's £51.6million.

Mr Mahendran's earnings also outstrip those of Rob Tinlin, chief executive of Southend Council by more than £8,000.

Both the county council and Southend Council are unitary authorities - meaning they have bigger budgets and provide more services than a district council such as Basildon, including education, waste disposal and highways.

Mr Mahendran's in- crease came in the same year the authority transferred responsibility for its 12,000 council homes to St Georges Community Hous- ing Association.

His right-hand men, executive directors Mick Nice and Doug Smith, were paid £121,000 and £118,000 respectively, according to figures obtained by the TaxPayers' Alliance under the Freedom of Informat- ion Act.

Despite the alliance requesting a breakdown of each chief executive's earnings, Basildon Council would not provide one, giving only Mr Mahendran's total earnings.

Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott said: "Taxpayers have a right to know how much senior town hall officials are being paid because only then can we judge whether they deserve their remuneration. Too often, council executives are rewarded handsomely even when they fail.

"Families and pensioners are struggling with the demands of yet another council tax rise, and councils owe it to them to cut back on executive pay hikes."

Basildon Council leader Malcolm Buckley, who signs off Mr Mahendran's salary, said his bonuses were a "few thousand pounds" higher this year, but would not disclose actual figures.

He also claimed Mrs Killian's salary was now more than £200,000 a year because, when these figures were compiled, she was acting chief executive.

He said: "If Mr Mahendran was not worth every penny he is paid, I would be looking at ways to remove him.

"He is paid a comparable sum to other district authorities of a similar size. There are very few other authorities with the sort of challenges facing Basildon in terms of regeneration and housing.

"I believe good quality people deserve to be paid what they are worth. We also need to be competitive with the salaries offered by London authorities."

Mr Tinlin said: "My increase in salary for this year is just the cost of living increase of around 2.5 per cent. It's a big business of 500 plus services and I'm still within the salary band from when I applied for the job."

Lord Hanningfield, county council leader, said: "I have set Joanna a target of making £200million of savings and, if she achieves this, she will get more money."