CONGLETON Borough Council's performance is up to scratch, according to a recently published report.

The Citizen's Charter Performance Indicator for 1998 was published on December 31, and the contents of it were discussed at a meeting of the council's audit committee this week.

The indicator measured the council's performance in areas such as household waste collection, leisure facility provision, customer services and recycling.

And it revealed that Congleton borough had achieved the vast majority of the targets it had set itself last year.

Areas of particular success were household waste recycling, playground provision and Council Tax collection.

The amount of household waste recycled in the borough rose to 7.5 per cent, almost double the amount recycled in 1997; the number of playgrounds reaching minimum standards increased from 16 in 1997 to 18 in 1998 and Council Tax collection figures were among the best in the country, with more than 97 per cent being received.

However, areas of concern included the number of missed household waste collections and the percentage of telephone enquiries answered.

Missed refuse collections increased from 65 per 100,000 in comparison with just 6 per 100,000 in 1996-97, and the council fell short of its aim to pick up 95 per cent of calls within 30 seconds, answering only 91 per cent within this time.

A spokesman for Congleton Borough Council said: "Over all, we think we did quite well in the performance indicators.

"We had increases in our recycling rates on the back of a new recycling scheme, and we have started collecting household waste and recyclable waste separately.

"We also had excellent results for the collection of Council Tax, though we could not have done this without public support.

"Congleton Borough Council will continue to strive to be efficient and serve the public to the best of their ability."

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