COULD do better is the verdict of inspectors looking at Bury Council's environmental services.

Everything from street lighting, refuse collection, public toilets and footpaths came under the scrutiny of the Audit Commission.

The commission's figures show that Bury does well in some areas, but lags behind similar councils in others.

The good news starts with the bins: local workmen missed just 60 collections out of every 100,000, compared with the metropolitan council average of 258.

Bury was second best when it came to the keeping the streets clean, scoring 98.6 per cent, some ten points above average. And at 1.2 per cent, the amount of local street lights not working was below the metro average of 1.49 per cent. The borough also scored 77 per cent, about the average, on the number of footpaths and rights of way which were easily accessible to the public.

However, the borough fared worse in other areas. It recycles just 4.8 per cent of household rubbish, below the 6.5 per cent average.

Only 52 per cent of pedestrian crossings had facilities for disabled people, compared with an average of 67.8 per cent, while town planners decided just 67 per cent of household applications within eight weeks, almost 10 per cent below the average figure.

The Audit Commission's performance indicators for 1999/2000 also revealed that Bury's environmental health officers carried out 72 per cent of scheduled inspections of high-risk food premises, compared to the metro average of 89 per cent.

And Bury boasted just four public toilets per 100,000 residents, one fewer than the average.