On top of our many new initiatives, we've been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make our organisation more efficient.
Sometimes called 'Good Housekeeping', these improvements may not seem much in themselves, but mean that the same service can be carried out for lower cost, or that an improved service can be offered at no additional cost. Either way, the residents of the town benefit, from reduced admin. charges or a better service.
For example, by making much greater use of email, we've substantially reduced our photocopying costs. Similarly, we've slashed the cost of our banking service by £15000 each year through a change from paper to electronic processes. Our planning department is now working more flexibly and has increased the percentage of applications dealt within 8 weeks from 72.5% to 80.2% in just one year.
Another example of changed working practices might have been noticed by 'phone callers to the Town Hall. By changing the Town Hall entrance arrangements, which has also significantly improved the security of its visitors and staff, we created a dedicated switchboard post. This reduced the average time taken for our main switchboard to be answered from 15.4 seconds to 10.3 seconds.
By managing our borrowings, we've achieved savings of £112000 this year. This builds on even greater savings on external loans in previous financial years.
Next year we're expecting energy savings of £15000 and hope to reduce the cost of office supplies by £10000 through more efficient buying. Similarly, we've reduced the cost of printing our About magazines by £10 000. Reducing duplication of marketing material is saving another £10 000, and doing more graphic design work ourselves will save us £25000.
Councillor Peter Chowney, portfolio holder responsible for Organisational Development, said:
"Whilst it is the big new schemes which grab the headlines, the good housekeeping which goes on behind the scenes is vitally important. It allows us to improve the quality of the service we offer at no cost to the council tax payer, and also frees up money that can then be used more productively elsewhere."
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This page last updated: 26/04/2004