THE leader of Pendle Council today expressed disappointed after government inspectors refused to give the authority's tax and debt collection service a star rating.

Best Value inspectors issued the department with no stars out of a possible three after rating the service 'poor'.

They said although it had some strengths, such as a wide variety of payment options, they were outweighed by weaknesses, including low collection rates and high service costs.

Leader Councillor Azhar Ali said: "I am pleased that the inspectors recognise that the council has promising prospects for improvement and is committed to change. What is disappointing is that we have not scored any stars despite the fact that the council is now achieving similar council tax collection levels as other East Lancashire authorities, including Blackburn with Darwen which received an excellent rating under the Government's Comprehensive Performance Assessment inspection regime.

"The major reason for this is that the data used for the judgement related to our performance, not at the present time but in 2001 and 2002 when the council had computer software problems.

"We will be calling for an early review of this inspection and will be discussing with the Audit Commission and Government how deprivation should be taken into account in Best Value inspections.

"Pendle and other East Lancashire authorities are areas where low incomes and deprivation have an impact on councils' ability to collect council tax and make it difficult to get a high score for debt recovery.

"However, the council is confident that the arrangements which have been put in place in our improvement plan will result in major improvements in service performance."

Stephen Barnes, chief executive said: "In a recent survey, 97 per cent of customers said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the service and the council is on target to being in the top ten of most improved councils for council tax collection.

"The service has been criticised for being too expensive because we have collection offices in Barnoldswick, Earby, Colne, Nelson and Brierfield.

"We have reviewed this several times but these local offices make our service accessible to people across Pendle's 65 square miles of area and this is what people want." Joanna Webb, commissioning inspector, Northern Region, said: "Pendle Council is committed to change and the improvement plan is being delivered on schedule. Council tax collection rates are improving year on year, and more customers are paying by direct debit.

"To improve even further the council must now introduce some flexibility into its systems and recognise that a different approach may be required in some areas of the service."

Weaknesses highlighted included the council not having an overall approach to debt recovery and not being proactive in areas where collection rates were poor, as well as some of the aims of the service being difficult to measure. Information about the council's performance against targets set out in the customer charter were also not regularly provided to customers.