CITY council chief executive Kim Ryley's pay packet has topped the £200,000 mark.

One of the highest-paid chief executives in local government, Mr Ryley has seen his salary increase by £50,000 since coming to Hull almost six years ago.

During that time, the council has gone from being labelled the worst-performing local authority in the country to being judged a three-star performer by the Audit Commission.

However, criticism of his salary, which puts him in the top 15 highest-paid council chief executives in the country, has remained a constant feature of his time in Hull.

In 2006-07, he received a total of £213,162, although this included several one-off performance-related bonus pay awards.

Only last week Mr Ryley said the council could not continue with "unsustainable" redundancy pay deals for staff in the face of budget pressures at the Guildhall.

At the same time, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable called for top local government officer pay to be reined in.

Currently, local councils are only required to provide limited information on senior officer salaries in their annual reports.

A draft copy of the city council's annual statement of accounts for 2008-09 lists one unnamed officer on the highest remuneration pay band of between £200,000 and £209,000.

But in a direct response to a query by the Mail, the city council confirmed Mr Ryley's annual salary was £192,493 last year – an increase of £5,000 on the previous 12 months.

This was topped up with a further £10,815 payment from Government funds for his role as returning officer in last year's council elections.

The percentage increase in Mr Ryley's pay was 2.6 per cent. Other council workers' pay increases over the same period were 2.4 per cent.

Dave Mathieson, convenor for Unite union members at Hull City Council, said: "At a time when Mr Ryley is proposing to cut the wages or conditions of his staff, I think he should be doing the same with his own salary."

The city council's draft accounts for 2008-09 reveal there were 237 employees whose pay, excluding pension contributions, was £50,000 or more – an increase of 50 on the previous year.

Most of the new entries are included in the £50,000-£59,999 bracket and are believed to be senior teachers.