Councils who found themselves near the bottom of league tables run in a national newspaper have hit back to defend their record. LEAGUE TABLE SUMMARY

COUNTY COUNCILS: 35 in total

31st: North Yorkshire

UNITARY AUTHORITIES: 96 in total

42nd: East Riding of Yorkshire Council

70th: City of York Council

DISTRICT COUNCILS: 260 in total

127th: Hambleton District Council

145th: Scarborough Borough Council

246th: Harrogate Borough Council

253rd: Ryedale District Council

259th: Selby District Council

The Independent on Sunday says it used Audit Commision performance indicators for 1997/8 to compile its council league table, selecting a range of key indicators on which to compare levels of service.

None of the councils in the region covered itself in glory with North Yorkshire County Council being ranked 31st among the 35 county councils in England and Ryedale District Council being awarded 253rd place from among the 260 district councils. Harrogate fared not much better in the 246th slot.

Both Scarborough and Hambleton did a little better, managing to squeeze in with the middle-ranked district councils.

Out of the 96 unitary authorities, East Riding was ranked a mid-way 42nd with York finishing well down the table in 70th place.

Tony Webster, of North Yorkshire County Council, spoke for many of the councils when he queried the formula used to draw up the table and said he believed some of the figures could have been used to arrive at unnecessarily negative conclusions. "The article says the tables are based on 19 key indicators but it does not say what they are," he said. "It may not take into account areas which we regard as crucial and in which we are performing extremely well, particularly education and social services, which have been praised at national level.

"In some areas they may have taken the fact we are a low spending council into account but that doesn't mean we are providing poor quality services."

Harold Mosely, chief executive of Ryedale District Council, said three of the performance indicators used were not applicable to Ryedale. He said: "Statistics are very tricky things and if not used properly can distort the facts. We have not been allowed to start on an equal footing and appear to do a lot worse than we actually are. We have made some distinct improvements in the services we provide."

Danny Shaw, of Harrogate Borough Council, said it was difficult to comment of the table without knowing the formula used."I accept there maybe some areas where we could do better," he said. "But we are continually working to improve our services and I do not believe we are lagging behind other councils as the table suggests."

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