Council is improving but... We need to do better!

The latest progress assessment report from the Audit Commission says the council has taken steps forward since the devastating inspection of three years ago.

A Corporate Governance Inspection in 2002 ranked Rossendale the worst of 237 councils in the country.

The latest report, discussed at a meeting of the council's executive, says the council was performing poorly when compared with local government as a whole.

It says: "Although managerial leadership is strong, we are concerned about the effectiveness of political leadership and decision making being shown by the elected members. From a very low base it has continued to put in place the building blocks identified in its improvement plan.

"There is, however, an awareness amongst officers and members that a great deal more work is needed to embed and realise the impact of many of the changes and there is still a long way to go in improving services to meet community expectations."

It adds: "Overall, the quality of the council's services remains comparatively poor. However, performance on 64 per cent of best value indicators has improved from 2002/03 to 2003/04 and the council is making significant investment in line with its priorities with the aim of achieving further improvement in the future.

"Public satisfaction levels continue to be low and in some cases have deteriorated over the last three years.

"This aspect remains a challenging agenda in respect of improving services to meet community needs and expectations."

Council leader Duncan Ruddick said: "On the whole this is a positive document and we are travelling in the right direction.

"We are making very positive changes but there are one or two areas we are looking to improve."

Chief executive Owen Williams added: "In September 2002 the council received a very critical report. There are still areas for development, but we have taken a significant step forward from where we were."