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In my last article I promised to give you more information about the inspection Bexley Council had at the end of 2005.
In December, the Council was awarded top marks (a four-star rating) under the Government’s new ‘harder test’ Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
The test, devised by the Government watchdog the Audit Commission, focused on the performance and delivery of a wider range of services than ever before. The new test also attached greater importance to securing value for money for local taxpayers
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Bexley maintained a top rating of 4 for its Corporate Assessment and received top scores in three of the seven service areas inspected. These were on Environmental Services, where Bexley was the only London borough to achieve the top rating, Social Care Adults and Children & Young People’s Services.
Areas noted by the inspectors included –
o Significant progress in implementing the five outcomes under the Government’s “Every Child Matters” agenda. These include a successful healthy schools programme and notable improvements in Bexley’s Key Stage 2 and GCSE results
o Longstanding and effective joint working arrangements with partners to deliver services for adults. These included modernising residential and day care services for older people and people with learning disabilities
o Sustained high performance in dealing with planning applications, road safety, recycling, environmental health and trading standards
o Significant investment in libraries, leisure and customer services
o A benefits service that demonstrates a comprehensive checking regime and improvements in a number of areas. These include claims processing, effective communication with landlords and a Benefit take-up policy that promotes the take-up of welfare benefits and targets under-claiming sections of the community.
I recognise that we can improve further and I am not complacent. The following areas of work were highlighted and we have already started to make progress on –
o The condition of footways, where investment has increased significantly
o The length of time families spend in bed and breakfast
o ‘Whole life’ costing for major projects and clear plans for joint working with partners.
It is reassuring to get such a clear and impartial view on Bexley and to compare us with all the other Councils in the country. It is good to know that, while we’re not perfect, we do many things very well.
I would like to thank my colleagues on the Council, the Council’s staff and the many local people and organisations that have helped us deliver such good results.
The House of Commons has been a lively place over the past few weeks with major debates and discussions on anti-terror laws, smoking in public places, ID cards most of which will have been resolved by the time this article is published. There have also been important discussions on the future management of schools, Animal Welfare and on Crossrail.
I have had an enormous mail-bag on animal welfare, overwhelmingly in favour of tougher laws to protect domestic animals. Hopefully those laws will be in force later this year. Crossrail will bring major benefits and job prosperity to our area, linking Abbey Wood through the Royal Docks to Paddington. I argued in the debate for the proposed extension from Abbey Wood thorough Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green to Ebbsfleet to be built as part of the first stage and not delayed to phase 2.
Although some people have reservations about ID cards, most are about the detail and not the principle, which most people I talk to are in favour of. I have had a lot of representations recently about “identity theft”. There has been a spate recently in the Erith area with people’s mail having been stolen. Local residents have discovered money missing from their bank accounts, accounts opened in their name, driving licences applied for etc. ID cards would go some way to preventing identity theft and fraud.
There is good news in Erith, however. I have been in discussion with local councillors about improving play facilities for young people. There are to be new playgrounds at Northumberland Heath Rec, Abbey Wood Rec & Franks Park and thanks to the London Marathon Trust, new Ball Courts for older children in West Street (Oceans Park) and Thamesmead.
More good news for Thamesmead is the demolition of the concrete monstrosity that was Tavy Bridge, paving the way, thanks to additional money from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, for a more secure area, new homes, the modernisation of existing flats, better access to the lake – and hopefully in a month or so time, the start of building work on a brand new state of the art Health Centre at Lakeside.
And there are major improvements in community safety across the area. Thamesmead, Belvedere, Erith and the Lesness farm and Larner Road areas have already seen the benefits of additional police resources with a dedicated neighbourhood policing team, backed up by additional Police Community Support Officers. In the next month or so this programme of community policing will be extended into other areas including Northumberland Heath and the Lesnes Abbey/Bostall area. This will enable the police and the council to work more closely with the community in tackling vandalism and anti-social behaviour which make life such a misery for many of our people.
And isn’t it great news that not only does London have the 2012 Olympics (with 9 of the 27 sports taking place in nearby Greenwich and Woolwich) but London has the start for the 2007 Tour de France bringing the actual race through our area.
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