BEST VALUE IS BAD VALUE (21/01/02)

Somerset is drowning under a flood of red tape.

Government's edict that the County Council has to formally "Best Value" review every service in which it is involved over a five-year cycle is costing Somerset about £750,000 a year, with no concrete savings yet apparent.

Red Tape has drastically increased for local authorities under Labour.

Today, the County Council is judged against over 145 specific performance indicators, monitored by four different inspection regimes.

We must agree up to 46 local plans with Central Government, covering everything from pipeline safety to mineral extraction. This bureaucracy costs an estimated £600million a year nationally.

John Smeaton, Conservative Group Leader on the County Council said; ‘The latest in this Kafka-esque scenario is an annual performance assessment by a Government Inspection Team to say whether we are "High Achievers, Striving, Coasting or Failing" as an authority.

‘Good, and we get more money, Bad, and we are financially penalised. With the Liberal-Democrats at County Hall already up to their necks in "Consultation" panels and public opinion forums, there will soon be nobody left with any time to provide Somerset citizens with the basic services they pay so heavily for’.

Conservative finance spokesman, Colin Hill added, ‘Somerset County Council is increasingly tied up by Government red-tape, which Liberal Democrats can’t seem to unravel.’