COUNCIL PERFORMANCE 2002-2003

TOO SLOW
Derby City Council has been named among the slowest in the country for processing housing and council tax benefit claims. The Department for Work and Pensions says it's lagging behind the average 44 days by taking 10 weeks to process applications.

COUNCIL PERFORMANCE 2002-2003

Council	Derby	Average
% of private dwellings 6 months empty, which were returned to use/occupation	6.7	3.4
Average time taken (in days) to process a new benefit claim	77	52
% of Council Tax collected	93	96
% of Years 3 - 6 classes with more than 30 pupils	40	25
% of council house repair jobs where appointment was made and kept	13	26
% of standard searches carried out within 10 working days	79	93

Derby City and County Councils have agreed to give Ł10,000 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 Ł2,000 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 Ł145,000 - were awarded to Transco. The council now wants to fight that in the House of Lords, which would increase the costs to Ł225,000, 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.