Top mark for three rural councils

Three rural councils have come out top of a government ranking of best performing authorities in the West Midlands region.

Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Worcestershire all received four stars - the highest mark to be awarded by the Audit Commission.

Shropshire was the only council in the region to also be rated as "improving strongly" in its ranking.

Sandwell came bottom across the six counties, with just one star.

Every other authority scored two or three.

Urban councils (score out of four) Birmingham 2 Coventry 2 Dudley 3 Sandwell 1 Solihull 3 Walsall 3 Wolverhampton 3

Sandwell council leader Bill Thomas said the authority had a "tough task" and would speed up the pace of change.

He said: "Our top priority is clearly to turn around services for children and we are already working with government inspectors to ensure this happens.

Shire counties (score out of four) Herefordshire 3 Shropshire 4 Staffordshire 2 Stoke-On-Trent (under review) Telford & Wrekin 4 Warwickshire 3 Worcestershire 4

"I am encouraged we are moving in the right direction and the commission recognises our progress since the last inspection."

Each council is also given a Direction of Travel score, showing whether it is generally improving or not, and at what speed.

Worcestershire council leader George Lord said of its maximum rating: "It's all about value for money and our assessment scores show that's exactly what we deliver.

"This is better than being excellent under the old scoring system. It doesn't mean we're perfect, however and we can still get better."

Some 29 out of 150 councils across England received the top score, with only one getting none at all. There are rankings for most county and unitary authorities.