HAS the Audit Commission got it right? In their recently-published league table of service performance by the 150 largest councils York just crept into the second division along with such notable stars as Knowsley and Sheffield, avoiding relegation into the third division by only a couple of points.

Even our neighbours at Darlington and the East Riding achieved better overall scores than York in the same division.

But hang on, haven't we been told by our council's costly spin-machine in countless press releases and publications during the years that we are blessed with a pace-setting innovative flagship authority of Beacon status?

K J Beavan,

Albermarle Road, York.

Updated: 12:16 Monday, December 23, 2002