Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

Scored on the two DEFRA-published components — recycling rate and residual household waste, FY 2024-25 final data (England averages: 42.0% / 513.3kg per household) — with the remaining components (missed-bin reports, complaint resolution time, service consistency) pending data ingest. Tunbridge Wells recycled 51.4% of household waste in 2024-25 — the best rate in Kent, well above the England average of 42.0% — with the lowest residual waste in Kent at 381.6kg per household (England: 513.3kg). Attribution: Liberal Democrat administration (Ben Chapelard) — LD majority from May 2024; the opening weeks of the year under the same leader's Borough Partnership coalition.

as of 2026-07-02 · source

Small-numbers caveat: district-tier LGSCO investigation counts are tiny (0–4 a year) and a single case can swing the uphold percentage from 0% to 100%, so this score rests on process indicators — upheld volume per 100,000 residents vs the 1.0 district average, remedies offered before the Ombudsman, and compliance with recommendations — across 2025-26 and 2024-25, never on the raw uphold percentage alone. 2025-26 figures precede the LGSCO annual letters (due ~July 2026) and may be revised. The cleanest Ombudsman record in Kent: 2025-26 — 9 complaints dealt with (the lowest volume in Kent), 1 investigation completed, 0 upheld, and no recommendations due for compliance; 2024-25: no investigations completed. The small numbers preclude a higher-band claim. Attribution: Liberal Democrat majority administration (Ben Chapelard) throughout both years.

as of 2026-07-02 · source

Weighted across the six published components: revenue budget variance 25%, capital programme delivery 20%, reserves & Section 114 risk 20%, external auditor VfM judgement 15%, council tax positioning 10%, council tax trajectory 10%. The only unqualified ("true and fair") 2024/25 audit opinion in its data cohort, with no significant value-for-money weaknesses; usable reserves £23.4m ≈ 149% of the cost-of-services budget, though down £4.0m in the year (car-park refurbishment funding). Scored down on forecasting and delivery: the 2025/26 draft outturn came in 10.4% (£1.6m) under budget on cost of services — a large underspend the methodology penalises as poor forecasting — and £14.2m gross of capital was deferred to 2026/27 in a substantial rolling-deferral pattern. Council tax: Band D £217.10, 4th-lowest of the 12 Kent districts, and the only 2026-27 district rise set under the referendum cap (2.79%); 5-yr CAGR 2.84% vs 2.64% nationally. Attribution: Liberal Democrat majority administration (Ben Chapelard) throughout.

as of 2026-07-03 · source

Fixed-date website audit (2026-07-03) against the Transparency Code checklist: spending-data currency and format, contracts register, councillor allowances, interests, committee papers, senior pay, open data, FOI disclosure log. Items not individually verified this quarter are scored neutrally and flagged. Headline audit finding: the council states it has published £250+ spending data "since June 2012", but the newest dataset on its portal is FY 2024-25, last modified January 2025 — roughly 18 months stale at the audit date and prima facie short of the Transparency Code's quarterly minimum. The open-data portal (the only dedicated one among Kent districts) is otherwise decaying: allowances datasets stop at 2020-21, no contracts register was found among its 207 datasets, and some dataset titles are corrupted. Committee papers are live and current, and an allowances policy page exists. Attribution: audit conducted under the Liberal Democrat majority administration (Ben Chapelard); the staleness window falls almost entirely within its tenure.

as of 2026-07-03 · source

Scored against the England averages (majors in time 91.0%, non-majors 90.8%, major appeal overturns 3.1%) over the 24 months to March 2026 (speed) and June 2025 (appeal quality), from MHCLG designation-regime tables; the enforcement-trend component (15%) is pending and the three measured components are re-weighted pro rata. The national "in time" measure includes agreed extensions of time. 90.5% of major applications (74 decisions) and 95.5% of non-majors decided in time, with a low 1.9% major appeal-overturn rate vs 3.1% for England. Attribution: Liberal Democrat majority administration (Ben Chapelard) throughout the April 2024 – March 2026 window.

as of 2026-07-02 · source

Trust score: 3 categorised public issues (no scoreable pledges yet).

as of 2026-09-29

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