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Hastings Borough Council is 'Good'.
That's the verdict of the Audit Commission following a Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) inspection in November 2003.
CPA is a Government initiative introduced through the Local Government White Paper 'Strong Local Leadership - Quality Public Services.' For the first time local people are given the opportunity to compare how well their council performs, where they are delivering good services and where they need to improve. The Audit Commission acts as the Local Government Watchdog, and judges how well councils are performing against set criteria. Councils are ranked as: excellent, good, fair, weak or poor.
The CPA inspection looked at how well the council delivers services, and considered how the Council is run.
The inspection consisted of:
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In its summary of its judgements the Audit Commission says:
"Hastings is a good council that is improving services for local people. It has recognised that it faces major physical, social and economic challenges. It is working to change itself from a district council with very basic systems and capacities, into an organisation that can lead a partnership to deliver a major regeneration programme.
It provides high profile community leadership, and it has developed a broad -based regeneration partnership. The council and its partners have clear ambitions based on 21 key community strategy targets.
The council has been proactive in housing renewal and in improving public areas and it has used its enforcement powers vigorously to tackle various forms of nuisance. It has also worked effectively as part of the crime and disorder partnership. Local people recognise improvements to local quality of life as a result of its actions."
The Audit Commission pointed out the following areas as strengths of the Council:
The report also identified areas where the Council could improve. The report said we need to:
Use this link to read the Audit Commission Full Report.
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Civic Leaders have welcomed the Audit Commission's verdict that Hastings Borough Council is 'Good'. The assessment was made following an in depth inspection by a team of independent auditors during last autumn.
The Comprehensive Performance Assessment ('CPA'), published today, is part of the Government's plan to give local people a report on how their council is performing, and how it is serving its community.
The report highlights areas that the council is doing well in. It says that it provides good services, keeps public areas clean, and is tackling problems of poor quality private housing. It notes that services are generally improving in the council's priority areas, and that the council is working effectively with its partners to deliver ambitious regeneration proposals for the town. The report also identified areas where the council could improve. The inspectors said that the council needs to increase its capacity to maintain good quality services while still contributing to the expanding regeneration programme. It also said that some challenges remain, for example in housing benefits, waste minimisation, and affordable housing.
Chief Executive Roy Mawford said:
"I am obviously very pleased that we have been rated a 'Good Council':- this is the second highest of the five categories.
"However we are not complacent, and we know that there are areas where we can improve. Every local authority, including the best, prepares an Improvement Plan after a CPA inspection, and we are already working on ours. It will be presented to the Council's Cabinet later this month.
"I would particularly like to pay tribute to our staff, who have worked very hard to help us achieve this result."
Council Leader Jeremy Birch added:
"I am delighted that our efforts have been rewarded with a 'Good' rating. We have come a long way over recent years. We are committed to improving the town, and the way in which we operate as a council.
"And it is good that the inspectors have recognised how ambitious we are as a Council. We are ambitious to regenerate Hastings into a prosperous town for everyone.
"I would like to add my thanks to our staff, and to our contractors and partners - this result is a credit to everyone."
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At the end of the CPA process, all local authorities (even the excellent ones) are required to produce an Improvement Plan to show how they are responding to the comments made.
In the case of Hastings Council, we welcomed the Audit Commission's confirmation of our recent improvements and will use their constructive comments to continue making improvements. We were already in the main aware of the areas identified for improvement, and plans to address many of these were already being developed or being put into place at the time of the Inspection.
CPA inspections were undertaken at the same time as ours in the other East Sussex District Councils. The results of these inspections (except for Rother District Council) were announced at the same time as our own. All five district councils are now preparing Improvement Plans and we have all agreed with the Audit Commission that we will collaborate on work where our respective plans overlap.
Our top priorities for improvement have been identified as:
We are currently developing an Improvement Plan, the first draft of this was considered at the Cabinet meeting on 29th March 2004
The next stage is to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed) targets that will be included in the final Improvement Plan to be agreed by Council on 2nd June 2004.
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For further information about CPA please contact the Council's Policy and Performance Unit
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This page last updated: 14/04/2004