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Leader: borough overview is a waste of time and money
A new website offering opinions on all Hammersmith and Fulham's public services has been slammed as a waste of time and money by town hall chiefs despite painting a rosy picture of life in the borough.
The Oneplace service unveiled today (9) was created to give people an independent overview of how their council, police and health service are performing on issues such as crime, levels of affordable housing and general quality of life.
Assessors who trawled through reports from six different Government-appointed inspectorates awarded Hammersmith and Fulham one green flag - for excellence in 'driving improvement through partnership' - and found no problem areas concerning enough to warrant a red flag.
Oneplace spokeswoman Annette Furley said: "Local public services, neighbouring authorities, businesses and other organisations have excelled at working together to improve the borough.
"Examples of what they have achieved include Westfield - Europe's largest inner city shopping centre - and extra investment in policing for areas with high crime rates and impressive improvements in school and college results.
"Young people who are educated in Hammersmith and Fulham are achieving well above average by the time they leave school at 16. Local health services and the council are working very well together to improve the health of local people and the majority of people in the borough feel that their health is good or very good.
"However, levels of alcohol misuse remain too high and more needs to be done to ease traffic congestion."
The publication of the Audit Commission-led report immediately drew fire from Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which issued a joint statement with high-achieving Wandsworth Council claiming officers had spent 'endless hours' on the study at a cost of around £200,000 for each authority.
Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh said: "Who cares what some Audit Commission bureaucrat sat in their ivory tower thinks of services in Hammersmith & Fulham? In all my years as council leader I can count on one hand the number of times I have been asked what rating the Audit Commission gives the council.
"What is vitally important is how local people judge the services they pay for and use, and in Hammersmith and Fulham residents' satisfaction is up to an all-time high. I am a passionate localist and all councils need to be cut free from the centralised bureaucracy and inefficiency of the gargantuan inspection industry if we are going to be able to deliver even better services at a lower cost for taxpayers."
For more detail on the Oneplace assessment visit oneplace.direct.gov.uk
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