The salaries of Oxfordshire County Council's five most senior employees remain a secret -- despite them being given a pay rise of almost six per cent.

County Hall has refused a request made by the Oxford Mail under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to reveal the individual salaries of John Jackson, Richard Dudding, Charles Waddicor, Keith Bartley and John Parry -- the authority's strategic directors for resources, environment and economy, social and healthcare, learning and culture, and community safety.

Last month the council's policy-making executive agreed a three per cent increase in their salaries in addition to a 2.95 per cent cost of living increase, which 18,000 rank and file council workers have also been awarded.

County Hall declined then to give the Mail salary details and supplied us with a salary range instead.

A council spokesman suggested we ask for further information using the new Freedom of Information Act.

The above-inflation rise of 5.95 per cent will see the directors' salaries jump to between £97,823 and £107,630.

But Steve Munn, county council head of human resources, refused to give more details. He said: "I have considered this request very carefully, but am unable to provide this information. "You will appreciate the council's obligation to maintain confidentiality in relation to personal information regarding its employees.

"It is the council's view that the information with regard to salaries is personal data as it relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.

"The council also has duties to members of its staff which must be respected, and failure to do so could result in the council facing criminal liabilities under the Data Protection Act."

A six-member committee, which included Tory county council leader Keith Mitchell, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Dermot Roaf and Labour opposition leader Liz Brighouse, came up with the recommendation following advice from South East Employers, which was commissioned to conduct a survey of salary levels for senior officers in comparable auth- orities.

County Hall has defended the increases as necessary to attract the calibre of leaders it needs.

Next month the county's new chief executive, Joanna Simmons, starts work on a wage of £150,000. She is unaffected by the new pay rise, but her wage is known because her job was advertised nationally.

A spokesman for the Campaign for the Freedom of Information said: "Potentially this is subject to the Data Protection Act, but salaries of the most senior staff are less likely to be con- sidered personal data because of the public interest in knowing what authorities' money is being spent on.

"We have not had a substantive ruling from the information commissioner on this, but some authorities think salaries are altogether out of the public domain."

We asked Oxford City Council to supply details of the salaries of its four senior directors -- it responded within 25 minutes:

Caroline Bull, chief executive -- £107,000

Mark Luntley, director of finance -- £75,000

Sharon Cosgrove, director of physical environment -- £72,000

Michael Lawrence, director of housing, health and community -- £70,000.