City Council receives "fair" CPA assessment
Winchester City Council Leader Cllr Sheila Campbell has welcomed the opportunity the recent Comprehensive Performance Assessment Inspection has given to take stock of the Council.
She said the "fair" assessment from the CPA inspectors, which followed a week-long visit by inspectors and a number of meetings with Members, officers, stakeholders and partners, was a snapshot of the authority in September 2003.
Cllr Campbell commented that "things have already moved on" and the Council is already addressing some areas where the report was critical.
"Since the CPA team visited we have completed a survey to find out the condition of our housing stock, we have announced plans to increase recycling, and our environmental protection team came out top following an inter-authority audit of eleven Hampshire authorities," she said.
"I am pleased the CPA team acknowledged that we have been investing in changing the Council into a modern local authority and that we are about to reap the rewards of this. But it also points out where more work in needed," said Cllr Campbell.
"It is gratifying to see that the team recognised we have the capacity to improve, with good staff and councillors. But they have made clear we need to focus on providing strong community leadership and articulating a vision for the District’s future.
"We intend to focus on the areas where the inspection has rightly said we are weaker, and our improvement plan will be shared with the public," she added. "The CPA will revisit in 18 months time and I look forward to reporting then on the further progress we will have made," said Cllr Campbell.
Chief Executive Simon Eden also welcomed the CPA report and said the improvement plan, already in its draft stages, charts where the Council needs to move forward.
"The final report makes some very constructive observations about the work under way in Winchester, and comments that the Council is increasing its rate of improvement and is putting in many of the key building blocks needed to improve services for local people," he added.
"The CPA Team have set us some challenges, and we accept that we do need to make further improvement. But they have also acknowledged that we will be building on a firm base. They identified a wide range of strengths that we can build on, and in many instances confirmed areas where we know we can do better," said Mr Eden.
"Our improvement plan is being drawn up to respond to these challenges and the coming year presents a real opportunity for the Council to develop its leadership role, without losing our existing strengths."
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Comprehensive Performance Assessment gives local authorities an assessment on the scale excellent/good/fair/weak/poor.