Our Performance

All councils are required by central government to collect data on areas such as waste, planning, benefits and housing and report them each year. This enables us to analyse our performance compared to other local authorities.

For 2005/06 we were able to directly compare 73 indicators with other district councils. Figure 1 shows how they were ranked into one of four categories according to their performance.

Figure 2 shows our performance for 2006/07 compared to the previous year where direct comparisons can be made. The majority of indicators improved on last year but 36% showed a dip in performance. The Council aims to improve again in 2007/08 so that 75% of key indicators improve.

Figure 1 Comparison 2005/6

	13 indicators ranked in top 25% of authorities (top quartile)
	16 indicators ranked above average
	14 indicators ranked below average
	30 indicators ranked in the bottom 25% of authorities (bottom quartile)

Figure 2 Improvement in 2006/7

	39 Indicators improved in performance
	5 indicators stayed the same in performance
	25 indicators dropped in performance

Below is an outline of some key performance figures for our main Council services. For a full breakdown of our performance indicators please see the Annual Report annex.

	Public Satisfaction Percentage of residents satisfied with the Council’s Services 03/04 - 41% 06/07 - 53%
	Invoices Percentage of invoices paid on time 05/06 - 92% 06/07 - 93%
	Council Housing Time taken to re-let local authority housing 05/06 - 37 days 06/07 - 30 days
	Removal of abandoned vehicles Percentage of abandoned vehicles removed within 24 hours 05/06 - 78% 06/07 - 78%
	Collection Percentage of council tax collected 05/06 - 95% 06/07 - 96% Percentage of business rates collected 05/06 - 99% 06/07 - 99% Percentage of rent collected 05/06 - 99% 06/07 - 97%
	Street Cleanliness Percentage of residents satisfied with street cleanliness 03/04 - 51% 06/07 - 64%
	Planning Percentage of major applications determined in 13 weeks 05/06 - 39.% 06/07 - 73% Percentage of minor applications determined in 8 weeks 05/06 - 56% 06/07 - 80% Percentage of other applications determined in 8 weeks 05/06 - 73% 06/07 - 91%
	Recycling Percentage of waste recycled or composted 05/06 - 21% 06/07 - 19% Percentage of residents satisfied with recycling facilities 03/04 - 65% 06/07 - 68%
	Benefits Average processing time for new claims 05/06 - 44 days 06/07 - 25 days
	Sickness Number of days lost due to sickness absence 05/06 - 10 days 06/07 - 11 days