THE leader of Northumberland County Council has hit back at a story in a national newspaper that ranked Northumberland among the country’s worst local authorities.

The article, published in The Times in April, listed Northumberland as the 18th-worst performing council in the country. However, the ranking – which used statistics provided from the Office for Local Government (Oflog) – has been criticised by prominent figures in the sector, including the Local Government Association (LGA) chairman Shaun Davies.

Critics said the method used to compile the league table was “fundamentally flawed” and that the Government should have stepped in to correct “misleading content”.

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting of the county council, Conservative leader Glen Sanderson added his voice to the protests after it was raised by Independent Group councillor Georgina Hill at the last meeting in May.

Cllr Sanderson said: “This is something you may recall was raised at the last meeting. I thought it would be useful to lay out, for members’ understanding, why the recent Times story that picked up some Oflog figures was misleading and wrong.

“We are actually improving on every metric that Oflog currently carry going back to 2021/22. The story is not so negative – it’s a very positive one.

“I would just underline a recent headline in the Municipal Journal, where every political group in local authorities wrote and said they were disappointed with this report and also with the figures Oflog used. That even included the Independent group.

“There is widespread anger about Oflog and the way the figures were used. We know you can’t compare a district council or a borough council to a metropolitan or county council because of the wide differences in services they provide.”

A report presented to members also set out how the council was developing a new set of metrics to measure performance, as opposed to those set by Oflog. It was felt that too many of the Oflog key performance indicators (KPIs) were determined by factors outside the control of the council, such as economic measures.

The new metrics will include “rich data” from surveys of residents and staff. Labour leader Cllr Scott Dickinson backed the move.

He said: “I agree with Glen. I have talked about this – we do need to have key performance indicators that outline what we can and can’t change ourselves.

“I welcome the reset and I welcome the work we’re doing towards it together. I also welcome monitoring things that are useful to the council, otherwise it costs money and wastes time.”

But Cllr Hill, who had previously raised the issue, wasn’t convinced.

She said: “I’m sure that there’s more work that can be done, but this suggests you ae looking to change the goalposts. If they found us to be the 18th best council, I’m sure you wouldn’t have said what you did.”

Cllr Sanderson branded this “complete nonsense” and argued he was “incredibly proud” of the council’s performance.