MP praises Council success

16.12.02

Davey delight at Local Lib Dems' work

Picture shows Councillor Roger Hayes, Leader of Kingston Council

Edward Davey, Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston and Surbiton, has praised the local council on publication of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) results which have classed Kingston as "excellent".

The classification comes off the back of work done since the local Liberal Democrat team led by Leader Roger Hayes took control of Kingston Council in May from the Conservative administration. Education gained higher scores after the election as some schools improved, and Social Services had a two star rating under the Conservatives, but achieved the maximum three stars when reclassified this October.

Commenting, Mr.Davey said:

"I am delighted that Kingston Council has received this praise from the Audit Commission. Given the excellent education and social services of the Council, I'm not surprised.

"This is great news - both for local residents and my Liberal Democrat colleagues on the Council who are working so hard. It is very encouraging to see special credit has been given to my colleagues for the new focus and clarity of priorities they have brought to the Council.

"For Kingston to be rated as one of only 22 'excellent' councils around the country is fantastic, but I know they will not be complacent and continue to strive for improvement - especially on housing and environment, where the scores are not so high. The work the Council is doing on Gold Zones, abandoned cars and graffiti are certainly good next moves.

"I still have many doubts about the value-for-money of the whole CPA exercise. Monitoring public services is necessary but this scheme is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

"Local residents should be delighted with the result of the assessment. But what should annoy them is the cost of this latest inspection, when added to the rising costs of inspection across the board.

"Hundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on bean-counting and report-writing - when that cash is needed for our schools, our elderly and our local communities.

"Kingston could have done an even better job if some of the wasted money had been used in council budgets to even further improve local services."