COUNCILS URGED TO CURB ROUNDABOUT SPONSORSHIP SIGNS

Local councils that allow advertising signs to be placed on roundabouts are being criticised today by a conservation group. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England says the signs are the least welcome addition to rural scenery and claims they compromise road safety. It is worried that there are more and more of the signs and that the local authorities responsible for the roundabouts are encouraging them.

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The latest results from the Website Take up Service, published by the Society of IT Management, now shows a series of key performance indicators for website usage covering take-up by local residents, visitor satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat visits.The report shows that visitor satisfaction has fallen, with 12% fewer visitors finding all the information they want and 16% fewer say they can find specific information easily from council websites compared with 12 months ago.

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LEADER PUTS CASE FOR LESS FREQUENT WASTE COLLECTIONS

The leader of the Local Government Agency has stressed his support for councils that have ended weekly household waste collections and moved to fortnightly bin emptying. Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said local authorities were under financial and legal pressure to cut the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill.

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REPORT DETAILS LIBRARIES’ IMPACT ON PUPILS’ ACHIEVEMENTS

A comprehensive report into the way libraries can make a difference to children’s learning will be launched later this week in Bristol . It has been drawn up by independent consultants, Morris, Hargreaves McIntyre, who were commissioned by the city’s Library Service to look into how both public and school libraries could help to build confidence and boost pupils’ achievements.

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By Sue Richards and Su Maddock.This report published by the National School of Government, summarizes the conference ‘Putting People First’ which was attended by over 300 senior public service figures.

One of the conference’s key themes was the need to recognise that much of the leadership of public service reform is taking place at the front-line, and at local government and local community level. Governments need to devolve power and resources from the centre to those delivering public services, in order to make improvement in those services self-sustaining. For this to happen public policy makers and managers will often have to work across the boundaries between different sectors, levels of government, and services. This has profound implications for the ways in which leaders are developed.

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CALL FOR COUNCILLORS TO TAKE ON FAMILY PORTFOLIO

A Government minister is urging councils to have an Executive Member for the Family. Harriet Harman, who is Family Justice Minister, believes holders of the suggested role could act as the liaison point for family problems and could work with a new Secretary of State for the Family in central government.

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COUNCILS URGED TO HELP SCHOOLS PREPARE FOR NEW COHESION DUTY

Councils are being called upon to act as brokers to help schools promote community cohesion before new legislation comes into force in September to compel schools to promote wider racial equality. The call has come from the Children’s Services Network.

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One NorthEast, the Regional Development Agency covering North East England, has developed a toolkit to improve service provision. It provides tools and techniques for the public and private sectors to evaluate the success of their service provision, view it and prototype it from the experience of the user.A typical application of the toolkit was its use by Northumberland County Council to explore new and innovative ways by which residents could access healthcare, social care and leisure and well-being services by public, community and voluntary transport.

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SMARTCARDS NOW AVAILABLE TO ALL CITY’S ADULT RESIDENTS

Nottingham City Council, which has been shortlisted for a special efficiency award for its smartcard for older people, has launched a new Adult Citycard, which offers similar benefits to all residents aged from 18 to 59. More than 100,000 of the new, personalised cards have been posted to citizens this week.

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NAO FINDS BUILDING PROJECTS FAIL TO MEET SUSTAINABILITY TARGETS

Most government departments and agencies are falling short of targets to make their buildings sustainable according to the National Audit Office. In a report today it says the result is that departments are not getting full value for the 3 billion pounds a year which they are spending.

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