DETAILS have emerged of how much Southampton's best paid directors earned last year.

Heading the local list at just under £1.9m is Chris Woods, the highly respected chairman of ACW Technology at Hedge End, near Southampton.

While topping the local league for directors' pay, he is ranked 11th overall in the south out of 443 named directors.

Mr Woods' package, which tripled from a previous £565,000, knocks one-time Skandia boss Alan Wilson off the top of the local perch.

Mr Wilson, who retired in February after two decades at the helm of the financial services company in Southampton, where 1,700 people are employed, saw his pay drop by £209,000 from £1m to £791,000.

Although a number of the directors at the south's top 700 companies banked spectacular rises, their pay went up by an average 0.25 per cent, compared to the recent average UK wage inflation of 2.7 per cent.

Bound to be of interest to tens of thousands of workers in Hampshire, the remuneration list has been compiled by business magazine Decision.

The figures, including salaries, bonuses and other emoluments, are based on publicly available accounts filed by companies last year.

A number of the 450 named directors will be familiar to employees in and around Southampton.

Paul Barron, the sky marshal' in charge at National Air Traffic Services near Southampton, which employs more than 1,300 people and handled 1.8 million flights last year, received £575,000.

Another is Leon Crouch, the 56-year-old New Forest industrialist, who recently bought £1.6m worth of shares in Southampton Football Club.

The Fuller group chairman, an avid Saints fan, earned £475,237, a rise of nearly £48,000.

Paul Lester, boss of support services and shipbuilder VT, which employs more than 70 people at its Hedge End headquarters and a further 600 or so at its warship factory in Portsmouth, received £585,000, an increase of £60,000.

Vanessa Lawrence, head of national mapping agency Ordnance Survey in Southampton, which has 1,200 staff, saw her pay go up by £10,000 to £175,000.

One of the biggest pay rises was for an unnamed director at Bradbeers in Romsey, with £386,741, a five-fold increase on the previous £63,111.

The firm, with family-run department stores in Romsey and New Milton, as well as other related businesses, employs about 160 staff and was founded in 1837 in Southampton.

Although not on the list, another high-profile director Saints chairman Rupert Lowe, was paid £264,000.

Pam Alexander, the chief executive of regional development agency SEEDA, which is behind the £350m transformation of Woolston Riverside at Southampton, received £164,302.

Larry Dillner, publisher of Decision, based near Portsmouth, said it would be insulting to describe any of the directors as fat cats.

He said: "Owner-directors have often risked everything to start up their own businesses, and the tax they pay on their salaries and from the profits of the companies they have built up help pay for our schools, hospitals, and every other essential service you can think of.

"Most directors who are responsible for the development and security of as many people as the population of a small town are being paid about the same as a Coca-Cola League full-back, so to describe them as fat cats is insulting."

To find out how much your boss earns click on to www.decisionmagazine.co.uk.