Thurrock's Overview and Scrutiny Committee has cast its eye over the council's latest best value performance figures.

The council's cabinet is responsible for monitoring the authority's best value and performance, while the scrutiny committee monitors performance indicators, a set of criteria drawn up by government to judge the efficiency and effectiveness of a council.

On Tuesday, the committee looked at the figures for the last month as well as those for the last quarter.

Coun David Hooper, said: "If there's ever a way not to get a view of how a council is operating, it's through the sort of figures which government asks for.

"It conveys almost a sterile view of the world, and when I was teaching I always said that if you can measure something it's not worth measuring."

According to the report, since November Thurrock Council has improved 11 areas of its work, while four have declined and 13 have stayed the same.

One of the declining services is invoice payment.

Kathy Hostettler, the council's head of policy, said: "The new target for the forthcoming financial year is to havce 100 per cent of invoices paid within 30 days. We're not moving towards that, but moving away."

Published Thursday, March 7, 2002