£1 Million Reward for Improving Local Services

The Royal Borough's success in improving services for residents of all ages means that council taxpayers will benefit from an extra £1 million for local services over the next two years.

That's the news from last night's council meeting (Tuesday February 27) when members voted on the budget for 2007/08.

Cllr Simon Werner, chairman of the Royal Borough Community Partnership and deputy leader of the council, revealed that Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) targets met by the borough over the past three years had achieved a £1 million government reward – £500,000 for 2007/08 and £500,000 for 2008/09.

The money, he said, would be used for further service improvements to meet public demand under the borough's Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign – including an additional community warden, extending community warden duties to cover parks in their areas, and a specialist machine for removing chewing gum from town centre streets.  The funding will also enable the council to employ a sustainability officer to further boost the its commitment to more environmentally friendly and greener ways of working.

Cllr Werner said:  "This is great news for the local community.  Three years ago we committed ourselves to 12 separate targets to improve services as wide ranging as education and reducing litter and now we are reaping the reward.

"It is particularly welcome given the very tight budget and, together with the council's continuing success in working efficiently and delivering quality services for less money, it will enable us to do even more for our residents in the year ahead."

The reward funding is the result of a number of key LPSA achievements including: improving pupils' performance in science; reducing litter and dog fouling; reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on local roads; encouraging more reporting of domestic violence; getting more drug misusers into treatment and working with owners and landlords to bring more empty and derelict homes into use.

The LPSA targets were devised by the council, in conjunction with partner organisations and government departments, to take account of issues that are important to local communities – making the borough a safer place for everyone, raising standards in schools and supporting vulnerable people.

The LPSA means:

• the council sets out its commitment to make specific improvements in performance
• the government rewards the local authority for making services better.

Cabinet approved the signing of the LPSA in July 2003 and since then the council and its partner organisations have been working to achieve the targets.
more
 

Confirmation of the £1 million reward money came yesterday from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Also at the council meeting the borough's budget for 2007/08 was agreed, with the council's value-for-money approach and efficiencies keeping the council tax increase down to 3.8%.  This was achieved despite a government grant increase of just 1.4%, inflation for local authorities running at more than 4.5% and rising demand for local services It represents a new Band D rate of £993.98 – an increase of £37 from 2006/07 but £69 under the anticipated average Band D charge for England.