Annual Audit and Inspection Letter 2007

The District Auditors Annual Audit and Inspection Letter for 2006/07 has been received and will be considered by the Audit Committee on 20 March 2008. The main messages for the Council in the report were:

• The Council is achieving improvements in most of its 'spotlight' priority areas. For example, recycling performance is good and improving, the availability of affordable homes has increased, and litter and graffiti in the district have reduced. Access to services has improved with the opening of a customer service unit, and the Council has been recognised for its good work with migrant workers. However, planning service performance, despite some improvements, remains poor.
• Performance indicators (PIs) in 2006/07 show that the Council is improving at a faster rate than many other councils. This follows a track record of above average improvement over the past three years. However, the proportion of PIs that show strong performance compared to other councils are lower than the average. This is in the context of being one of the lowest spending councils per person across the country.
• Governance arrangements and value for money have continued to improve and this is reflected in our Use of Resources 2007 assessment. This showed that West Wiltshire scored 3 out of 4 'performing well' - consistently above the minimum requirements in all areas.
• We issued an unqualified opinion on the Council's 2006-07 financial statements. We also judged that the Council had adequate arrangements in place for achieving efficient, effective and economic use of its resources.

The full text of the Audit and Inspection Letter and the Use of Resources can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

Audit and Inspection letter (pdf file, opens in new window)

Use of Resources report (pdf file, opens in new window)