Barnet Council claims “inaccurate assumptions” are behind its placing at the top of a Town Hall Rich List released this morning.

The table, published by independent watchdog the Taxpayers’ Alliance, revealed the borough authority paid out over £100,000 to more staff than any other council in the country in the 2010/2011 financial year.

Remuneration totals published in the list are made up from basic executive salaries but also include pension contributions and redundancy packages, a fact the council argues is misleading.

A council representative said in a statement: “The Taxpayers’ Alliance numbers are just wrong.

“The alliance has made a series of inaccurate assumptions to get to the highest possible number and cross referenced two lists that don’t contain the same information. “In the last financial year the council had 25 staff on total remuneration, including pension contributions, over £100,000.

“A further 16 appear on the list because of redundancy payments and another six are teaching staff. This number of teaching staff also includes redundancies.”

The council stated it had 13 members of staff receiving salaries of more than £100,000 at the end of the last financial year.

Removing teaching staff from the list, which the Taxpayers’ Alliance said was not made clear in the council’s accounts, the authority still tops the bill with 41 staff receiving more than £100,000 in total remuneration.

A Taxpayers’ Alliance spokesperson argued the watchdog made it clear the figures included total remuneration, not just salaries, and invited the council to publicly challenge the figures taken from its own accounts.

A representative said in a statement: “We make no secret of the fact that we include figures which include redundancy payments in a given financial year - it’s taxpayers’ money and forms part of their total remuneration for that year.

“We have done this ever since we released our first edition six years ago and, where the council accounts say so, we always note where a redundancy payment pushed a particular employee into a higher salary bracket.

“Our report does not claim to be a survey of council salaries – we make clear that it includes total remuneration (including, but not limited to, salary, allowances, expenses, bonuses, redundancy payments and employer pension contributions).”