HULL City Council has 270 managers earning more than £50,000 on its books at a time when it is facing unprecedented cutbacks.
Libraries, customer service centres, youth projects, nursery schools and children's centres are all facing the possible axe under budget proposals due to be debated at a full council meeting next week.
The council's ruling Labour group's budget plans also include moves to axe about 600 jobs, as well as long-standing local agreements on staff overtime and car allowances.
Labour leaders say up to 250 jobs could be saved if unions agree to the changes to staff terms and conditions.
But today a pressure group claimed the £16.9m cost of employing 270 managers on £50,000 or more at the council – four times the number at the neighbouring East Riding Council – was the "elephant in the room" at the Guildhall.
Andrew Allison, Hull grassroots co-ordinator of the Taxpayers' Alliance (TPA), said: "I don't think having so many comparatively well-paid managers can be justified in this day and age.
"These salaries are not typical for Hull as a city and if other councils can operate perfectly well with far fewer managers then I can't see why it can't apply here."
Collated from data supplied by every council the UK, the TPA figures are for 2011-12.
They show Hull had managed to trim the number of managers earning £50,000 or more by 43 compared with the previous year, producing a saving of £2.2m.
But the city's total of 270 managers still dwarfed the East Riding's 63. At North Lincolnshire Council, only 52 staff were listed as earning £50,000 or more.
City council leader Councillor Steve Brady said senior management costs had been substantially reduced since Labour returned to power almost two years ago.
He said: "This administration gave a commitment to rationalise the senior management structure. The changes that we made this year have returned a £500,000 saving in this year's budget."• In today's Mail: Angus Young reports on the financial pressures facing Hull City Council.
