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TORY RUN COUNCIL ABANDONS STREET SWEEPING TARGET AS SERVICE STANDARDS PLUMMET

7 April, 2001 

Liberal Democrat Councillors have slammed the decision by Conservative Councillors to abolish some of next year's targets for cleaning up Kingston's streets when the latest figures show that many key services are getting worse. The latest Performance Plan approved by Conservative Councillors shows that the Council is failing in;

 

  1. Refuse collection - failed to meet council target
  2. Street Cleanliness - only 54% of residents satisfied.
  3. Number of local roads in need of repair- failed to meet council target
  4. Number of Street Lamps not working - failed to meet council target
  5. Standard of local footpaths - failed to meet council target

Despite this, the Conservative's are now proposing to 'delete' some of the targets for next year including:
  1. The percentage of street lights not working
  2. The percentage of highways that are of an acceptable standard of cleanliness
  3. The average time taken to remove fly tipping
    4.

 

Liberal Democrats have criticised the decision. Councillor Wyn Evans said:

"The performance plan is sent to all local residents and shows how well services have been provided in the past year and what the Council aims to do in the next. The latest Performance Plan clearly demonstrates what local residents have been telling councillors for the past year - that the state of our local streets are getting worse under this Conservative administration.

"The decision to abandon some of the environmental targets is beyond belief. The targets that Councillors set in the Performance Plan are those that are set for council officers and contractors to meet. The Council shouldn't be abandoning targets just because it's failing to meet them.

"Local residents are telling us that the priority should be to give the Borough a clean-sweep but once again the Conservative's are failing to listen and failing to act."

Liberal Democrats are now arguing for a complete overhaul of future Best

Value Performance Plans in order for them to reflect residents' concerns. In

particular, they are calling for targets to be incorporated on graffiti, abandoned cars, pot-holes, street lights, and street sweeping.

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