Darlington'S youth offending service has been ranked seventh of 155 nationally.

The ranking comes despite Darlington Borough Council spending the least per offender in the North-East region, and a year of problems with staff turnover in the youth offending service.

The service has risen from 53rd in the third quarter of last year, to 33rd in the first three months of this year, and then to seventh place over the year as a whole.

Part of the success is due to a large proportion of the town's persistent young offenders appearing before the courts for numerous new offences and breaches of existing community orders.

In a report, Margaret Asquith, the council's director of social services, said: "A ranking of seventh nationally is considered an excellent performance for a small youth offending service with limited resources."

Councillor Bill Dixon, council cabinet member for social services, told a cabinet meeting: "Our much-criticised service back in 1997 and 1998 has done well.

"Back then we were told it wouldn't work, it was stupid, it was the daftest thing they ever heard, and we were recommended by the youth offending board to amalgamate with Durham.

"If we fast-forward the videotape some six years we now have people visiting us in Darlington to see what we have done and how we have done it with regards to youth offending.

"Had we followed the advice of the experts we would be at 107th place in the league table."