MONMOUTHSHIRE has one of the top performing local authorities in Wales according to a report released last week.

The Local Authority Performance 2013-14 report was released on Tuesday 17th February and puts Monmouth-shire fifth out of the 21 authorities in the country in terms of overall satisfaction at services provided by the council.

Monmouthshire is performing well above average – in the top 25 per cent of the country - in at least one section of every performance category, apart from transport.

Some categories, such as transport, only have one section in which they are judged whereas others have two, three or four.

Leisure and culture services, the environment, and community safety are categories in which MCC is performing averagely or better in every section – marked as orange for performing in the middle 50 per cent nationally, or green for the top 25 per cent.

Education is a particularly strong suit for the council according to the report, with performance in both sections marked as green.

More than 65 per cent of pupils reached Key Stage 4 Level 2 – those achieving 5 GCSEs or more at grade A*-C – which makes Monmouth-shire the top area in the country in that section.

The area is also joint second in terms of attendance at secondary school with more than 93 per cent attendance across the county.

MCC has also been marked as green in delivering affordable housing, the amount of time taken to deliver disability grants and allowing people to feel safe after dark.

Similar levels of performance have been found in the wellbeing category, as Monmouthshire has the lowest percentage of overweight or obese adults in the country, and has one of the best percentages for adults being physically active on five or more days a week.

This is tempered by Monmouthshire being the joint worst performing region in terms of adults drinking above the recommended guidelines, with more than 45 per cent consuming more than the advised limits at least once a week.

There are two other areas where Monmouthshire is performing in the bottom 25 per cent areas in the country, marked as red, with "looked-after young people in training" and "households with children accepted as homeless" sections both well below the national average.

The first of these looks at how many young people, who were formerly cared for by the authorities, that are known to be in education, training or employment at the age of 19. Monmouthshire just comes into the worst performing quarter in this regard with more than 40 per cent of people learning or in work.

The latter involves the number of households with dependant children accepted by the council as eligible to be housed, with more than 12,000 households in the county, putting Monmouthshire second only to Cardiff as the worst performing area.

Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews said: "This data will support local authorities in transforming their services.

"It provides them with vital information to help them identify where they are doing well and where they need to improve."

Commenting on the Welsh Government publication Local Authority Service Performance, council leader Peter Fox said: "We are pleased that the Welsh Government report highlights some of the improvements that have been made in services delivered by the council. 

"We continue to operate with reducing budgets, and understanding how the services delivered to local people and communities are performing is essential.

"We will use this data alongside a range of other measures to improve how we work. 

"We recognise that there remain some areas where we need to improve but are pleased to be making good progress in our core priorities of education, safeguarding vulnerable people and enterprise, along with other key service areas."