Cotswold District Council has achieved a Council Tax collection rate of virtually 100 per cent.

Latest Department for Communities and Local Government figures for 2016/17 show that the authority collected 99.3 per cent of all Council Tax due.

It puts the council in the top five out of 326 local authorities collecting the tax across England.

The council also exceeded its own 99.2 per cent Council Tax collection baseline target which was set in 2011/12.

CDC leader Cllr Mark Annett (pictured) said: "We are very grateful that so many residents in the district pay their Council Tax on time.

"It means that we have prompt access to the funding that we need to deliver our full range of services.

"I would also like to thank the CDC officers in our revenues team who are tasked with collecting Council Tax.

"They are committed to achieving a very high success rate and they continue to pursue outstanding debts beyond the tax year when necessary.

"We are not resting on our laurels and have recently established a counter fraud unit to target fraudsters operating in the district.

"We are keen to ensure that we provide the best value for money possible, and our most recent figures (2015/16) show that the overall cost of our services per head of population has reduced from about £110 in 201/11 to just over £82.

"This is one of a number of measures we use to gauge our efficiency and our most recent review showed that we are the third best council in the country in this regard."

What do you think? Email mark@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk