Hampshire County Council is forking out £7.25m in redundancy payouts to senior managers, it has emerged.

The authority is axing 150 senior posts – about a quarter of the total - as part of plans to cut the workforce by 1,200 and save £55m over the next year.

County chiefs said the move will save about £36m in salaries, pensions and other employment costs over the next four years which justifies the one-off costs.

But a campaign group has criticised the “extraordinarily generous” pay-offs. The average package is worth about £46,000 each – well above the statutory payout.

The local authority last October set aside up to £10m from savings to spend on bigger payouts to staff who leave voluntarily.

The statutory minimum for a manager aged 50 on a £75,000 salary who had worked for the council for 15 years would be £7,800.

Under Hampshire County Council’s compulsory scheme this rises to £28,000 but under its enhanced terms this doubles to £56,000 –seven times the statutory payout.

Leader of the Conservative-led council Ken Thornber defended the pay-outs, saying the managerial redundancies will save the authority about £36.4m over four years in salaries, pensions and other employment costs.

He said: “The savings have to be offset against the one-off costs of making these significant reductions in terms of redundancy and pension payments which stand at £7.25m.”

But Christine Melsom, Hampshire-based founder of anti-council tax group IsItFair, said: “The county council’s enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme is extraordinarily generous, especially when one considers it is financed by the public purse.

“The county claims that cutting management posts will save around £36m over the next four years, so the upfront costs are worth it.

“We say that if they had stayed with the compulsory redundancy scheme the savings would have been substantially more.”

The enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme is also available to other staff but managers have been offered it first.

The council, which employs 42,000 full and part-time staff, wants to trim its £359m annual salary bill.