Government Targets Set to Change - Letter to Oxford Mail

5.04.06pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 4th Jul 2006

On 16th June, I suggested that Government could help local authorities by removing some of the plethora of their imposed targets and performance indicators that mean that we spend nearly as much time measuring what we do as actually doing it. Government figures produced yesterday show that the average Council actually spends £1.8 million a year on measuring performance, and 80% of their effort reporting to Government rather than to local people.

I was not the only person to be saying so, of course. The Local Government Association report, Closer to People and Places, said the government should get rid of 1000 targets for local authorities, and replace them with 30. Additionally, at the end of May, the Municipal Year Book ran an online poll that showed that 69% of voters agreed with reducing the number of targets.

But perhaps at long last the Government has started to listen. It appears from yesterday's reports in the national press that Ruth Kelly, the new Local Government and Communities Secretary of State, is suggesting fewer targets in the future.

It is a shame that her predecessors in this and previous Governments did not agree. It could have saved councillors and officers a lot of time and taxpayers a lot of money!

Yours sincerely

Cllr Zoé Patrick