It makes me proud to hear our council is one of the best in the county.

I, like all people who live within this borough whether Leyther, Pie-Eater or whatever, wish our council success as our council runs the services we use every day.

The best part of this news is the extra freedom from Whitehall control that it brings, this means that council resources can be better targeted at those who need them.

It also reduces the amount of resources council workers spend on unnecessary paper work, meaning that our council can get on with what we put them there to do -- provide public services.

Another piece of good news is the £17.4m increase in council funding this was urgently needed ass towns like Leigh have always done badly out of government funding formulas that target resources at big cities rather than real people.

You quoted council leader peter Smith as saying 'we know we are not perfect and will continue to improve' .

Some immediate comments were ones of pity on other councils if they are worse than ours.

Lord Smith is right in saying the council must continue to improve, the government's CPA assessment was a measure of efficiency and Wigan, one of the lowest spending councils in the county while being one of the largest councils in the country .

The £17.4m and the extra £58m for council houses will finally allow our council to deliver quality public services at a reasonable price.

Keir Stitt

Another happy person of Leigh