DECISION AT LAST
Toddler Olivia Brown was hurt when a
stack of doors fell on her at Wickes, London
Road, in October, 2002. An immediate inquiry was
launched by Derby City Council's environmental
health officers.
A city council spokeswoman said in April 2004,
that an announcement on the outcome of the
investigation could be made in the following two
weeks.
In January 2003, the council said that the
investigation was expected to take just three
more weeks to complete.
It's taken 20 months for the council
to decide to prosecute Wickes for failing to
protect its staff and visitors from risk. The
company will also be prosecuted for failing to
carry out a suitable risk assessment. |
TOO
SLOW
Derby City Council was named among the
slowest in the country for processing housing and
council tax benefit claims. The Department for
Work and Pensions said it's lagging behind the
average 44 days by taking 10 weeks to process
applications. |
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COUNCIL PERFORMANCE 2003-2004
| Council |
Derby |
Average |
| % of new homes
built on previously developed land |
50 |
69.99 |
| %
of Council Tax collected |
93.55 |
96.87 |
| % of resident
population served by kerbside collection of
recyclables |
100 |
86.22 |
| Road accidents
where a pedestrian was killed or seriously
injured per 100,000 population |
17.01 |
18.57 |
| Violence against
the person |
28 |
16.5 |
| Robbery offences |
3 |
1.4 |
| Theft of a motor
vehicle offences |
5 |
4.5 |
| Theft from a
vehicle offences |
15 |
10 |
| Vehicle crimes
per 1,000 population |
20.59 |
14.5 |
| Sexual offences |
2 |
0.9 |
| Burglary dwelling
offences |
14 |
6.4 |
| % of household
waste recycled |
12.12 |
13.24 |
| % of household
waste sent for composting |
2.83 |
3.93 |
| % of household
waste arising used to recover heat, power &
other energy sources |
0 |
10.72 |
| % of household
waste landfilled |
85 |
71.87 |
| Kilograms of
household waste collected per head |
529 |
439.1 |
| Cost of waste
collection per household |
£31.38 |
£38.91 |
| Cost of waste
disposal per tonne for municipal waste |
£38.4 |
£39.18 |
| % of people
satisfied with the cleanliness standard in their
area |
60 |
59.8 |
| % of people
satisfied with household waste collection |
84 |
84.03 |
| % of people
satisfied with waste recycling |
73 |
67.85 |
| % of people
satisfied with waste disposal |
78 |
75.48 |
Derby City and County Councils have agreed
to give £10,000 to Leicestershire County Council to help
it fight a legal battle. Leicester Council is involved in
a legal wrangle with gas pipeline firm Transco over fines
for late-finishing roadworks. Currently, a utility
company has to send a letter to the highways authority
saying it has finished works. If the letter arrives after
the agreed deadline, the authority can fine the company
up to £2,000 a day for over-running. In this case, LCC
does not know whether or not Transco completed the work
before the letters were served.
A High Court judge found in favour of the county council
but his ruling was overturned in the Appeal Court, and
all costs - a total of £145,000 - were awarded to
Transco. The council now wants to fight that in the House
of Lords, which would increase the costs to £225,000,
and so has asked all highways authorities to contribute
towards its fighting fund. Derbyshire County Council
spokeswoman Catriona Cummings said, "This could have
implications for all highways authorities. If this case
is upheld, it could mean that, instead of relying on a
completion notice, highways authorities would have to go
out and inspect every bit of roadworks in their county to
establish when they have finished. We don't have enough
manpower to do that." A city council spokesman said
that it was a matter of principle.
Derbyshire
County Council has achieved "excellent" status
twice under the Government's new Comprehensive
Performance Assessment (CPA) inspection regime, a form of
monitoring carried out on all councils. But the latest
CPA scores place Derbyshire County Council as the most
improved of all the previously ranked
"excellent" councils in the country.
The council has risen three points to a score of 24 out
of a possible 28 over a 12-month period. The CPA tests
seven areas across three categories, performance and the
quality of local services, corporate and managerial
effectiveness and the capacity to improve. Each service
is given a score on a scale of one to four, providing the
council with an overall score for service performance.
Derbyshire County Council cabinet member for external
affairs Dave Wilcox said, "We're delighted with this
result which proves we're right on track with our
commitment to improving life for local people." The
authority was one of just eight county councils to gain
"excellent" status in 2002 and 2003.
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