Winchester City Council continues to make positive progress on the Local Government Association’s Peer Challenge
In February 2017 the council welcomed an external peer team of councillors and senior officers from other authorities across the country who were tasked with looking at how the council can improve its performance. Since the review the council has introduced a number of changes in a bid to address their recommendations.
In September 2018, the council welcomed the team again when they carried out a follow-up evaluation of the progress being made.
The peer review team said:
"Throughout our time at Winchester we gained an overwhelming sense that the council has made significant progress since the Peer Challenge in February 2017."
“The leadership provided by the Leader and Chief Executive have given rise to a clearer sense of direction amongst staff. The new structures have been welcomed and freed up the Chief Executive to take a more strategic approach. Some of the ideas we heard about 18 months ago have now become reality”
“The council has a clear sense of direction and progress is being made. The mix of ambitious projects and good service delivery will allow Winchester to continue to be a great place in which to live, work and visit.”
Leader of Winchester City Council, Cllr Caroline Horrill, said:
“It has been really positive that we have received such good feedback from the review team. We have an ambitious programme we want to deliver for our residents and having an independent external review is really helpful for showing where we can keep improving for the benefit of our residents and continue to with the progress we have been making over the past 18 months.”
The council has put in place an action plan to complete the remaining actions from the original peer review in the coming months.