IS SOMERSET COUNTY COUNCIL 'COASTING'? (13/03/02)

The Government propose to performance assess County Councils. All Councils will be branded as ‘high performing’, ‘striving’, ‘coasting’ or ‘poor performing’.

Government has already said they expect most councils to fall into the ‘coasting’ category. Therefore, they are spending taxpayers money to find out what they already know. The justification is that categorisation will inform the public. Somerset residents know how their Council is performing by living in Somerset.

Sarah Hatim, a Taunton resident, said ‘I judge Somerset County Council on the basis of whether my bins are collected, on whether the elderly are looked after, on whether there are decent schools, on whether my car journey is made uncomfortable along pot-holed roads, and on whether my tax bill is soaring.

‘I don’t care whether Government says Somerset is ‘high performing’ or ‘poor performing’. I’ll make my own mind up thank you very much. And I’ll rely on my own judgement when it comes to polling day.’

Conservative spokesperson for Care and Safety, Elaine Waymouth, said, ‘Decisions that affect local people should be taken by those people. Councillors are accountable and directly judged through the ballot box.

‘Taxpayers already fork out £600 million a year on inspection. I’d rather see some of that money coming to Somerset’s severely underfunded social services department. This money would be better spent on the elderly or the sick, rather than on offensive and fuzzy classification. For local Somerset people to hold the Council to account, the systems must be transparent and logical. The public don’t understand government assessment and the pubic don’t want it.’