Torbay Council has been rated as one of the 13 worst performing councils in England by the Audit Commission.

Described as "poor" by the Commission, the council's main weaknesses include social care and housing.

Earlier this week the authority was threatening to take out an injunction to prevent the report being published.

It subsequently stepped back from such action after the Audit Commission said it was not prepared to delay publication.

'Poor' councils

Bedfordshire Coventry Hackney Islington Kingston-upon-Hull Lambeth North-east Lincolnshire North Tyneside Swindon Torbay Wakefield Walsall Waltham Forest

Torbay disagrees with the Commission's conclusions and claims that some of its services are performing well.

In a statement council leader Eileen Salloway said: "These results do not add up to a "poor" authority which is why we are challenging the crude scoring system."

Elsewhere in the county Devon County Council was described as good, with the best transport system in the South West and one of the top eight in the country.

Commenting on the Commission's verdict, council leader Christine Channon said the assessment was "a thoroughly well deserved acknowledgement of the input of all our dedicated staff and councillors".

But Plymouth City Council received a weak rating.

Council leader Kevin Wigens said his council would strive to improve.

"We are disappointed, but our attitude is that we are going to take the results of the assessment on the chin and move on.

"It's a turning point for us."

The Audit Commission's performance table ranks all of England's 150 unitary authorities and county councils.

Its aim was to pull together all the previous, disparate inspections to provide a definitive breakdown of council performance.

Authorities were placed in one of five brackets - excellent, good, fair, weak and poor - based on their provision of key services, their use of resources and their ability to improve.

All councils not rated excellent now have a month to draw up a plan to improve their public services.

In addition to the 13 poorly-rated councils the Audit Commission judged 22 councils as excellent, 54 as good, 39 fair and 22 as weak.