THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has been ranked as the highest performing local authority in Wales for the third year running.

The 2016/17 local government performance bulletin, examines the performance of local authorities in 25 high priority areas. These cover a wide range of services such as education, housing, transport & highways, planning & regulatory services and leisure services. The scores also reflect the quality of a council’s governance and corporate health.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council was ranked in the top group of councils for more than half of these and performed better than the national average in 68 per cent of all measures.

Despite having topped the table for performance in 2016, the council was still able to improve in nearly half (44 per cent) of the areas scrutinised.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council recorded a perfect score for three key areas of its work, ranking best in Wales for ensuring that all looked after children left compulsory compulsory education, training or work based learning with an approved qualification, as well as successfully issuing all special education needs statements within the required 26 week period.

Rob Thomas, Managing Director, said: “To be ranked as the best performing local authority in Wales for the third year running is an unprecedented achievement.

“This success is firm evidence that this organisation is staffed by some of the very best people in their fields. This council’s continued high performance is driven by their desire to provide the best possible services to the people of the Vale of Glamorgan. We are however far from complacent. It is clear to me that there are some areas where we need to improve further and this will be a focus of our attention in the months that follow.”

Cllr John Thomas, Leader of the Council said: “In recent months I have made clear my determination that this council will lead from the front in tackling the big issues that face local government in Wales and ensuring the people of the Vale benefit from our efforts. Having topped the table now for three years I am absolutely certain we will achieve this.”

This latest accolade for the Vale of Glamorgan Council comes in the same year that has seen the authority collect a string of awards, including Team of the Year at the UK Local Government Chronicle Awards and which also saw the organisation shortlisted for UK Local Authority of the Year in the Municipal Journal (MJ) Achievement Awards.