THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has been ranked the joint highest performing council in the country according to figures from Data Unit Wales.

The Vale was ranked in the top group of authorities for 48 per cent of the comparable performance indicators, with eight ranked the best in Wales, making it one of the two joint best overall performers in the country.

Half of the 46 national performance indicators showed an improvement on last year’s results, with 18 per cent achieving the best results possible, an improvement of four per cent on 2013/14.

And 61 per cent of indicators were also ranked higher than the average across Wales.

Schools in the Vale came out as a particular success, with 10 of the 11 performance indicators for education achieving higher than the Welsh average.

During 2014/15 just over 62 per cent of pupils aged 15 in the Vale achieved the Level 2 threshold, the second highest result in Wales, and no children in the Vale left school without at least one approved external qualification, including pupils within local authority care.

Council leader Neil Moore said: “We are obviously pleased that we are one of the top performing authorities in Wales, particularly at a time of increasing uncertainty in local government and budget pressures.

"These results demonstrate that, despite talk of local government reorganisation and the perceived benefits of larger councils, the focus in the Vale of Glamorgan has been on continuing to deliver high quality services to meet the needs of our citizens.

"However, we cannot be complacent. We realise our services have a direct impact on the lives of people in the Vale of Glamorgan so we need to sustain and where possible improve our performance across a range of essential services.”