Audit Commission Report - Barnet Planning Services

Inspection report July 2005 Planning services London Borough of Barnet p 2 London Borough of Barnet - Planning services Contents Summary 3 Scoring the service 3 Recommendations 5 Report 7 Context 7 The locality 7 The Council 7 The service inspection 8 How good is the service? 9 Are the aims clear and challenging? 9 Does the service meet these aims? 11 How does the performance compare? 21 Summary 23 What are the prospects for improvement to the service? 24 Ownership of problems and willingness to change 24 A sustained focus on what matters 26 Capacity and systems to deliver performance and improvement 27 Integration of continuous improvement into day-to-day management 29 Summary 30 Documents reviewed 31 Reality checks undertaken 31 List of people interviewed 32 ‹‹‹ London Borough of Barnet - Planning services p 3 Summary 1 Barnet Council is the second largest London Borough and is located in the north of London. The borough covers an area of 8,700 hectares. The population of the area is 314,000 of which 26 per cent are from ethnic minority communities. 2 The Council has a Conservative administration which has been in power since 2002. The Council has a leader and cabinet model of governance and has 63 councillors of which 33 are Conservative. 3 In 2004/05 the Council’s budgeted expenditure on services was £661.6 million. Barnet was rated as fair in the December 2004 comprehensive performance assessment and rated ...