A SENIOR Conservative hit out at an independent assessment which gave his council an “adequate” rating - saying a neighbouring council did not deserve a better score.

The Audit Commission gave South Bucks District Council a lower score than neighbouring Chiltern District Council in a report presented to cabinet members this week.

Bill Lidgate, cabinet member for the environment at SBDC, took umbrage with the scores and told a senior audit commissioner the report was “flawed”.

He said: “Any report that gives Chiltern District Council a better score [than South Bucks] has to be flawed.”

The report said SBDC “meets only minimum requirements” as a council and gave it a score of two out of four. Chiltern was given three out of four and described as “performing well”.

After the meeting Cllr Lidgate said his comment was a “little bit tongue in cheek” but added: “There are many things that we do better than Chiltern that we are not given due credit for.

“There's always a bit of rivalry between local councils.”

He declined to say in what areas he thought SBDC performed better.

The audit commission said SBDC could be doing more to provide affordable homes. It also said the 26 percent of people who “feel they can influence decisions” in the district is the lowest in Buckinghamshire.

The council was praised for having “clear ambitions” and “working well with partners”.

Council leader Adrian Busby told the Bucks Free Press: “We are where we are and I'm quite relaxed about the two out of four score.

“It's more about assessing the direction of travel and I'd probably give us a three out of four score.

"I think we exceed the minimum requirements. We deliver good value for money.”