Six council chiefs have received pay increases totalling more than £44,000.

A request made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) revealed that from March 1, 2010 to March 1, 2011 the annual salary of Swale council’s chief executive Abdool Kara increased by £5,000 from £130,000 to £135,000.

At the same time, the salary of the corporate services director Mark Radford rose by £6,535 from £87,525 to £94,060.

The heads of service delivery, planning services, economy and community services and commissioning and customer contact have also had their salaries increased by £8,285 upping their pay to £73,490 a year.

Regeneration director Pete Raine was the only one listed among the council’s seven top earners not to receive a pay increase.

The news comes less than two months after Swale council set its budget for 2011/12 which took in to account a reduction of £1.6 million from central government funding.

To generate extra income, members approved increases in parking permit fees, Hackney carriages and private car charges, fees from planning applications, increased mooring fees at Queenborough Town Quay and allotment rents.

Savings of almost £10,000 were also agreed. They included £1,000 from reduced graffiti cleaning and £4,000 from reduced cleaning costs for collecting litter along the A249.

Members also agreed a reduction of £4,500 in rental costs for coffee machines.

The FOI request was made by Ian Davison, chairman of the Sittingbourne and Sheppey UKIP.

A spokesman for Swale council defended the increases.

He said: “There was no inflationary pay increase in 2010/11, but contractual increments along individuals’ pay scales were honoured as required in law.

“The reason that the director of regeneration did not receive one was that his first increment did not fall due in the period as he was only appointed in April 2010.

“It is important to stress that as part of a new pay and reward system agreed with the unions, the award of the annual increment is performance-based, so people will only move up the scale if they have met their performance targets.”