04 July 2009Residents who would like to find out more about Sevenoaks District Council’s performance and improvements over the course of the last year can read its newly published ‘Your Council: Our performance 2007-08’. The plan also sets out how well the Council performed nationally against other authorities over the period.
Last year, the Council collected 65 national performance indicators covering many of the services it provides. Overall, more indicators are improving compared to those that are declining. During the period, performance against 41% of the indicators improved and 26% remained the same. Nearly 70% of the Council’s services were in the top half for national overall performance.
Some of the improvements included the amount of household waste sent for recycling and composting. It has improved from 30.24% to 32.47%. To add to this, crime in the District has continued to fall. This being not just in robberies and domestic burglaries, but also in vehicle crime and violent crime. Compared to the previous year crime has dropped from 6.2 incidents per 1,000 people to 5.1 incidents per 1,000 people.
Cllr Jill Davison, the Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for Council performance, says: “Over the course of the last year, we have gone to great lengths to improve our overall performance and the services we deliver to our residents. According to national performance indicators 68% of services are in the top 50% for overall performance. Despite this we are determined to do better and we have plans and monitoring procedures in place to ensure we do so. This shows that despite stringent financial pressures, the Council is doing better than last year and still we set our sights on improvement."
To view ‘Your Council: Our Performance 2007-08', log on to www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/performance. For a paper copy call 01732 227177.
The period covered in ‘Your Council: Our performance 2007-08’ runs from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008.
