1.1 |
Background |
| 1.1.1 |
In October 2006, the Government issued the White Paper ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’. The White Paper announced a new, simplified performance framework for local authority services. Local authorities are already under a duty to prepare a Sustainable Community Strategy setting out the strategic vision for their area. They will now be required to prepare a delivery plan for the strategy – known as a Local Area Agreement. |
| 1.1.2 |
In November 2007 the Government identified a set of 198 national indicators that can be used to measure service outcomes (a major reduction from the previous Best Value regime, which identified over 1,000 Best Value Performance Indicators). |
| 1.1.3 |
Each Local Area Agreement may include:
- up to 35 designated targets using national indicators, based on priorities agreed with local partners and with the Government; and also
- local targets, set at the discretion of the local authority and its partners.
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| 1.1.4 |
The Government has identified Local Environmental Quality (LEQ) as one of the chief concerns of local communities. This is supported by research undertaken by the Local Government Association, who concluded that cleaner and safer streets are issues that are of concern to almost everyone. |
| 1.1.5 |
NI 195 is one of the 198 national indicators that is designed to measure LEQ, and covers litter, detritus, graffiti and flyposting. |
| 1.1.6 |
The survey that forms the basis of the NI 195 Cleanliness Performance Indicator has been developed to measure the cleanliness of the local environment, as a member of the public would see it. |
| 1.1.7 |
It is based on the methodology of the Local Enviornmental Quality Survey of England (LEQSE) developed by ENCAMS (Environmental Campaigns), for monitoring a range of local environmental issues. The results will be comparable with the overall national returns delivered to the Government every year. This Annual Report is available from www.encams.org. |
| 1.1.8 |
The data from NI 195 surveys will provide managers with valuable information on the extent of litter, detritus, graffiti and flyposting, and therefore the success of their cleansing regimes, over a variety of different land uses within their authority. The NI 195 website includes a spreadsheet that can be used online to calculate cleanliness measures for each land use; to generate analyses and graphics for use by local authority managers as management information; and to generate NI 195 returns for Government. |
| 1.1.9 |
This information may be used to form part of the Comprehensive Area Assessments of local authority performance (CAAs) to be carried out by the Audit Commission from 1st April 2009 onwards. |