A council boss who earns more than £100,000 on a four day week has been given a pay rise.

Three Rivers District Council's chief executive, Steven Halls, will be paid £120,953 after politicians approved a rise of almost £2,400 in December.

Pressure on council finances will intensify after the government slashed the amount of money they give to councils,

The council may charge for the collection of green waste and administration sources indicated the authority may need to cut spending more than previously feared.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It always baffles taxpayers when councils plead poverty and slap extra charges on services with one hand, but then award pay rises to their bosses with the other.

“Residents pay their taxes to fund essential front-line services, not to line the pockets of already well-paid public sector executives. A struggling council should always aim to cut out wasteful spending before asking residents to dig deeper into its pockets."

The council’s opposition leader Cllr Ralph Sangster also questioned the move when council services have been cut.

He said: “The council sold its housing stock to Thrive Homes for £25 million and the leisure services have been outsourced.

“The overall picture of the changes to government funding was significantly worse than we had anticipated and we are going to have to look at the services we provide and how they are delivered.”

The council’s financial statements show that Mr Halls also took home £18,892 in pension contributions in each of the past two financial years.

Two years ago, local government staff were awarded a pay rise of one per cent.

Three Rivers’ top officers were excluded from the pay rise until politicians agreed the recommendations.

Last March, following discussions between unions and the Joint National Council for Chief Executives, chief executives earning less than £100,000 were given a two per cent pay increase.

No agreement was reached for chief executives earning a six-figure salary to receive a rise.

But the policy and resources committee at Three Rivers District Council agreed to award the council’s chief executive a two per cent increase to ensure equality.

Watford Borough Council’s managing director Manny Lewis took home £158,152 between April 2014 and March 2015.

Three Rivers District Council declined to give a statement on why it awarded the pay rise, but the authority said it had saved more than £3.5 million in the past ten years.