I was surprised to read about the local council getting a 3-star rating in the latest council 'league tables'. Whenever I've personally had to deal with them, they tend to come across as a fairly inefficient bureaucracy. There are some things which they probably do well (whoever runs the redevelopment in the city centre seems to be doing an ok job) but there are other aspects which they are less good at.

They miscalculated our council tax last year which led to us overpaying by an admittedly small amount. We're still waiting for the refund they promised. The roads/highways department is also piss-poor. Some of the residential streets are in shocking condition with huge pot-holes and broken or rough surfaces.