In a report released today following a detailed inspection, the Audit Commission has praised Waveney District Council’s environment services, citing a range of improvements that have “made things better for users of this service”.

The Audit Commission inspection team visited the Council earlier this year, examining a wide range of services in great detail, and have awarded Waveney a ‘fair’ rating, with ‘promising prospects for improvement’.

These services incorporated waste management - including waste collection and recycling – the management of open spaces - including beaches - and a variety of other areas such as street cleaning, litter & fly-tipping enforcement, abandoned vehicles, stray dogs & dog fouling, contaminated land, graffiti and the condition of street lights, footpaths & cycleways.

In particular, the Audit Commission applauded the high levels of recycling and composting, how Waveney keeps the locally environment ‘generally clean’ and believes that the Council provides ‘good value for money’ in this area.

Cllr Ken Sale, Cabinet Member for the Environment said: “I am very pleased with the findings of this report and the praise we have received from the Audit Commission. With our new Strategic Management Team in place we are committed to making measurable improvements to services that really matter and this report is a very clear indication that we are heading in the right direction.

“Across a wide range of services, our teams have worked tirelessly to maintain and improve the environment around us and I am very grateful to them all for their efforts. With the co-operation and commitment of the people of Waveney too, we have shown the Audit Commission that this is a good place to live and visit and we are doing our very best to keep it that way. The Audit
Commission also reported on areas that need improving and Cllr Sale is confident that these issues are being resolved.

“The Audit Commission highlighted the work we need to do on the Equality Standard for Local Government but I am sure that they will be pleasantly surprised next time they visit. We have appointed an Equality & Diversity Officer to improve awareness and standards across the organisation and we are confident of attaining level two of the Equalities Standard later this year.

“We also now have a co-ordinated approach to sustainability and biodiversity with a strategy for such matters soon to be embedded and our access to services has improved considerably thanks to recently established dedicated call centre and our brand new customer contact centre at the Marina.

“We remain on an improvement journey, but this report is a great boost and provides genuine, tangible evidence of the real improvements being made.

“I am delighted that so much of our excellent work has been recognised and I hope that our residents and customers feel reassured by the progress we are making.”