Several key Bournemouth council services have been praised in this year’s report by the Audit Commission.

The report shows that Bournemouth Council is improving adequately and has been named as one of the best performing councils for a number of key council services.

The independent commission, which is responsible for ensuring that public money is well spent, highlighted in the report that Bournemouth is one of the best-performing councils nationally for increasing the recycling of domestic waste. The combined recycling and composting rate was 36.3% in 2006/07 compared with 20% in 2005/06.

Bournemouth has also been recognised for its achievements for maintaining the high standards of its parks, gardens, open spaces, achieving 10 green flags and eight blue flags for Bournemouth’s beaches.

Bournemouth’s housing management and community housing services were also named one of the best performing on a national level with only 2% of the Council’s housing stock assessed as non decent.

The Customer First Programme made ‘accelerated progress’ in 2007 according to the report. The new Ask Bournemouth customer service centre in Boscombe provides residents with improved customer care with easy access to the contact centre which provides information on a variety of services, from street cleaning to housing services.

The commission identified a number of areas for improvement. These include:

• Strengthening adult services by helping more older people to be able to live at home.
• Access to the Town Hall and other Council buildings
• Improvements to the Council’s website.

The external audit is an essential element in the process of accountability for public money and makes an important contribution to the stewardship of public resources and the corporate governance of public services.

Audit in the public sector is underpinned by three fundamental principles:

• Auditors are appointed independently from the bodies being audited.
• The scope of auditors’ work is extended to cover not only the audit of financial statements but also value for money and the conduct of public businesses; and
• Auditors may report aspects of their work widely to the public and other key stakeholders.