WHAT may be regarded as “excellence” at other councils is just “business as usual” in Clackmannanshire, according to a councillor praising hard-working staff.

The comments from Councillor Les Sharp came as last week’s Place Committee meeting applauded the directorate under its merit, which includes a cocktail of teams like waste services, housing, roads, public buildings and a whole host more.

Elected representatives lauded the ongoing work within the Place Directorate as they debated figures coming from the Local Government benchmarking Framework, which measures the performance of all 32 councils across a wide range of areas.

In terms of recycling Clackmannanshire is third best in Scotland.

It ranked first for having the highest percentage of its housing stock meeting energy efficiency standards with 100 per cent.

The local authority was also placed sixth for its homes meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard criteria at 97.7 per cent.

Clacks came second for the average working days it took to complete non-emergency repairs at 4.1 days.

The local authority did place in the middle quartiles across other areas, but the chamber heard services under the Place Directorate outperformed others locally.

Proposing the report tabled on the day, committee chair Councillor Craig Holden said: “The Place Directorate is performing exceptionally well.”

He also hailed the “strong recycling rates”.

Mr Holden went on to say the Wee County had “one of the best housing services in Scotland” with “some of the best results” as seen in the benchmarking figures.

Some downward trends were noted, however, documents tabled on the day saying: “As can be seen, the impact of efficiency savings is beginning to materialise and detrimentally affect levels of effectiveness and satisfaction.”

Acknowledging, Cllr Holden added: “When you cut the budget it has effects, it’s not rocket science.”

The council officer presenting the paper that nationally, work is ongoing to improve the benchmarking framework’s usefulness.

Their report said that “benchmarking is a key performance management tool, providing context and promoting knowledge-sharing”.

But went on to say: “The council cannot aim to improve in all areas, and this report aims to support decisions around which indicator types should be the priority for each area.”

Cllr Les Sharp, seconding, voiced worries that staff are not getting recognition for the work they do, explaining that what is regarded as “excellence” at some councils is “business as usual in Clacks”.