GOOD services provided at a pittance - that's the verdict of council leaders on new national performance leagues.

Division tables show that Bury is near the bottom for funding, yet outscores other local authorities in key areas.

Bosses say this again highlights the case for Bury being given more money by central government.

The Audit Commission collects information from all councils in England and Wales, and compiles them into annual league tables.

Figures for 1995-96 show that Bury's spending per head of population is £658. This is the third lowest of all metropolitan authorities, where the average is £781.

Spending on primary and secondary pupils, at £1,492 and £2,116 respectively per head, is also below average, although Bury's schools score highly in education league tables.

Council leader John Byrne said the figures spoke for themselves.

"Everyone seems to agree that Bury is not treated in a fair and just way. It is about time something was done about that."

The figures also show a marked improvement in Bury's social services.

Bury is joint top of the table, at 100 per cent, in offering single rooms to people entering residential accommodation. And there has been a 20 per cent rise, to 93 per cent, in supplying people within three weeks with items enabling them to live at home.

Bury collected 96 per cent of council tax due, two points above the average, and deals with 85 per cent of benefit applications within 14 days.

But there are areas where the council lags behind other authorities.

The time taken to re-let council houses is 6.6 weeks, higher than most.

And seven per cent of tenants owe more than 13 weeks rent, compared to just five per cent nationally.

The authority is again below the average for recycling household waste (2.6 per cent) and in dealing with planning applications within eight weeks (74 per cent).

Coun Byrne said: "We are not being complacent and we realise that there are areas that we can improve.

"However, for the money we have at our disposal, we feel we are doing an extremely responsible job."

He added: "With the current re-organisation we are looking at, we are convinced that with a fairer settlement in future, the situation can only get better."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.