How your council ranks in performance league tables for finances, roads, waste management and care
The leader of a West Midlands council has defended his record after the authority was branded one of the worst-performing in new league table published today.
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The table, using data from the Office for Local Government, ranked Wolverhampton Council 305th out of 318 local authorities across England and Wales.
However, council leader Councillor Stephen Simkins described the rankings as 'unjust and unfair', saying they were unfairly skewed towards borrowing levels and did not take into account the differing levels of deprivation faced in different areas.
He said the council had been judged as 'excellent' in an independent auditors' report.
Wolverhampton did perform better than neighbouring Birmingham, which came in at 315th in the league table. However, Wolverhampton's finances have been ranked as worse than Birmingham's, despite the second city's council being placed into effective bankruptcy last year.
Wolverhampton's finances were ranked as the third worst in the country, compared to Birmingham's which came 305 out of 318. Wolverhampton Council's strongest showing was in social care, where it was ranked 15th in the country, and roads came in at a creditable 46th. However, its handling of planning applications and waste management were both towards the bottom of the table, at 242nd and 245th respectively.
The rankings were compiled by The Times newspaper, using data from the Office for Local Government.
