Council backs away from legal fight

The council is discussing its options with lawyers

Torbay Council appears to have backed down in its legal fight with the government's standards watchdog.

The Audit Commission is due to publish a critical report on the council on Thursday.

On Monday, the local authority threatened to seek an injunction against publication of the report which, councillors claim, gives a false impression of the council's services.

However, on Tuesday officials backed away from pursuing the injunction but still attacked the 'league table' system of grading local government bodies.

'Crude system'

Council leader Eileen Salloway said: "The commission has informed our solicitors that they are not prepared to delay publication of the league tables.

"We are discussing our options with our lawyers, but at this stage it is unlikely that we will proceed with an application for an injunction."

However the council is still likely to take some action against the Audit Commission.

Ms Salloway said: "We have never challenged the inspectors' findings in their reports, but we challenge the way those findings have been interpreted in this crude scoring system."

Improvements made

Government inspectors Ofsted criticised Torbay's education services in September last year.

It said the authority did not fully understand its legal duties and gave too little priority to education.

The following month, Torbay's social services were described as among the worst in the country.

But the council says the situation has improved.

Last Friday inspectors gave it two out of a possible three stars for its education services.

Social services, which was zero rated a year ago, has now received one star.