As Fylde's Cabinet will be told on Wednesday, under the Audit Commission's new 'OnePlace' assessment scheme for Councils, Fylde has the lowest score in Lancashire.

Along with Lancaster City, they scored a pathetic 9 out of 20, but Lancaster's Council tax requirement per head is £55 whilst Fylde's is £72!

It will be a good test to see if the Commissar's new spin doctor can manage to get some good news out of it, but our readers will know the true facts.

The new scoring system sees assessments given for 'Managing Performance' and for 'Use of Resources', with the latter being split into 'Managing finances', 'Governing the business', and 'Managing resources'.

Fylde was the joint lowest overall (with Lancaster), and not a single council in Lancashire scored lower than Fylde in ANY of the categories. The local councils are shown below with Chorley (who were 'the best').

		Fylde	Wyre	Blackpool	LCC	Chorley
Managing performance		2	3	3	3	4
Use of resources		2	3	2	3	4
	Managing finances	2	3	2	3	3
	Governing the business	2	2	2	3	4
	Managing resources	1	3	2	3	4

		9	14	11	15	19

The scoring means:

1. Does not meet minimum requirements, Performs Poorly
2. Meets only minimum requirements, Performs Adequately
3. Exceeds minimum requirements, Performs Well
4. Significantly exceeds minimum requirements, Performs Excellently

This is a disaster of an administration we have at Fylde.

Adequate is the best they can be, and they couldn't be given a lower score for managing their resources. As we've been saying for some time now, they are without doubt the most financially incompetent administration Fylde has ever seen.

To be fair, we tend to take this sort of assessment with a pinch of salt.

They measure what Government wants measured, not what local people want, so they're not really worth a lot of notice as they are inclined to measure irrelevant social engineering issues like 'diversity' and they offer comments such as "The Council's approach to diversity and equality is improving but is not as well developed as some other councils." We'd actually count that as a plus if it meant they were focusing on delivering the services they take the tax from us to provide instead of messing about with Politically Correct attempts at social engineering.

The one bright spot in Fylde's report is doorstep recycling services. "Almost eight out of ten said they were happy with the service, the highest level in Lancashire."

But one of the more negative was that public satisfaction with leisure services is low. "Only one on three people are satisfied with the sports and leisure facilities provided by the Council." Might that just have something to do with the Swimming pools we wonder.

Two thirds of people are not satisfied with the Council's performance in this area. We're just amazed it's not more.

For another piece of claptrap, you can try "The Council has worked effectively as part of the [Fylde Coast sub region] partnership to secure the Open Golf Championship in Fylde in 2012". This is just a load of plain old cobblers. Every Council before this one has 'secured' the Open Golf Championship when the R&A wanted to bring it here. It needs no 'partnership' for that to happen. It needs competent officers and a reasonable approach from the Council in making assets available (such as playing fields for overflow car parks).

Another gem! "A new Lytham business group has been set up to fund events, car parking, Christmas lights and an ice rink." We wonder whether the LEG know that is what they are for. To us, this looks like the Commissar riding on the back of someone else's horse.

But the absolute diamond comment in the report is "Despite providing services that are generally of good quality, customer satisfaction with the Council overall is low. Local people are very satisfied with Fylde as a place to live but are much less satisfied with the performance of the Council"

What this says is that people continue to live here DESPITE the rubbish Politburo Cabinet that is running (or maybe that should be ruining) it.

You can follow this link to see and download the full report

And don't believe the Commissar when he keeps telling you that Fylde has the lowest Council tax in Lancashire. This is from the same website:

Lancashire local authority's council tax requirement per head of population (£)

Rossendale	£79.79
Preston	£74.03
Pendle	£72.30
Fylde	£72.20
Burnley	£70.99
South Ribble	£70.78
West Lancs	£66.70
Chorley	£64.82
Hyndburn	£63.73
Wyre	£61.21
Ribble Valley	£57.27
Lancaster	£55.56

Fylde is the worst council in Lancashire and the fourth most expensive.

We think it might be time for a new badge
and an image rebranding
for Fylde's employees

Dated: 15 February 2010