“Golden goodbyes” for former employees of Tower Hamlets council have been branded “unjustified” by the Chief Executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Last week, The Advertiser revealed that Tower Hamlets made a payout to a senior figure amounting to �249,000. In total, the council made five payouts of at least �100,000 each to staff - despite its continued drive to save �90m over four years.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has since responded to the revelations.

Matthew Sinclair, the group’s chief executive, said: “Tower Hamlets Council have a history of making huge redundancy pay-outs.

“Local authorities need to scrap the contracts which lead to these six-figure deals as they are often terrible value for taxpayers’ money and are especially unjustified in the current economic climate.”

A council spokeswoman confirmed the payouts were made as a result of redundancies, and that the posts have not been refilled.

“Over the last two years the Council has delivered savings of over �60m while preserving frontline services”, she added. “In most instances, the cost of redundancy is more than recouped through staff salary savings within a year of payments being made.”