Council gets first positive inspection in three years

2.19.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 24th Sep 2007

Liberal Democrat run Northampton Borough Council has been given its first positive inspection report since 2004.

The council is said to be making "adequate progress" in improving its services by the Audit Commission, the Government's spending watchdog. But the Commission says that the council has still to show that improvements are "resilient and will be sustained."

Lib Dem Council Leader Tony Woods welcomed the report saying: "This is a positive report but we recognise that there is more to be done. The key to success is in making our improvements part of our day job. It¹s absolutely vital that we build on our initial successes and give local people the services they deserve."

Northampton Borough Council Leader, Lib Dem Tony Woods

The report notes a number of areas of progress:

o The council is beginning to demonstrate stronger political leadership

o Financial capacity and planning has improved and there are better financial controls in place

o The council¹s swift action to address weaknesses in the finance function have been recognised

o The council has taken steps to ensure effective managerial leadership, and lines of accountability and responsibility are now clearer

o Improvements to performance monitoring have been made and performance trends are largely positive.

The report notes areas for further improvement and consolidation:

o There is a need to ensure that improvement is embedded and made resilient and sustainable

o Corporate and service planning needs to be improved with a greater focus on the outcomes to be achieved

o More work is needed to address forecasted budget overspends.

Councillor Woods added: "We have started to create momentum in recent months. There are areas where we must still focus and that work is already underway. The key is to build on this with our new chief executive David Kennedy who starts in November, and make our services better all round."