Council welcomes positive Peer Report

Councillors have welcomed an excellent report into East Hampshire District Council’s performance by a team of independent public sector experts.

At Thursday night’s Full Council meeting members discussed the Corporate Peer Challenge report – an assessment of EHDC’s operations by senior councillors and officers from other authorities.

The report described EHDC as a 'well-run' council that can 'deliver on its priorities' with 'passionate staff, who are committed to the council and residents'.

EHDC Leader, Cllr Richard Millard, said: ““I am extremely pleased with the findings of the peer review. It shows the council in its true light as the successful council that it is, and it shows that we continue to provide support to all members of the community to the standards that I expect.

“To have such a positive endorsement of the work we have done at EHDC over the last few years shows the value of the work we have put in here.

"It really supports the work our officers do day in day out, so congratulations to them on achieving such a successful report. There were some recommendations for improvements but that gives us the opportunity to continually feedback and review as we go forward."

The report is the end result of a process called a Corporate Peer Challenge. It saw a team of senior local government councillors and officers undertaking a comprehensive review of key finance, performance and governance information at the council.

The team spent three days with the council in January interviewing staff and councillors and closely examining the council’s operations.

Praise for the council included its recent move to new premises, its new leadership structure, bringing IT services in-house and updating systems and redesigning services.

The report also made recommendations for improvements and an action plan is already in place to see these recommendations put into practice.

Charity benefits from unused council furniture

We’ve given unused furniture from our old offices at Penns Place to a Hampshire charity called Inclusion Education.

Downsizing our council offices with our move to Monterey House meant that there was some unused furniture left over in Penns Place.

We reused 113 desks, refurbished 159 office chairs and moved other storage furniture into our new offices, but there were still some items left over that we didn’t need.

As part of our commitment to avoid waste where possible through the move, Hampshire-based Inclusion Education – a charity providing social, emotional and mental health support to young people in education – has taken some of the remaining furniture for use across their sites.

Cllr Robert Mocatta, EHDC portfolio holder for Regeneration and Prosperity (which includes climate and environment) said:

“Anything we can do to avoid this furniture going into a skip to be disposed of is worth doing as it reduces the impact of our move on the environment.

“I am very pleased that Inclusion Education has been able to take this furniture on and hope it will be useful to them for many years to come.”

Kristian Still, COO at Inclusion Education said:

"We are so grateful for this incredibly generous donation.

"The furniture and equipment from Penns Place is being used across our sites helping us to create warm, nurturing environments to support our young people, helping them to re-engage with both education and for our older students, future work place opportunities.

"This has made such a difference and we can't thank EHDC enough."

If your community group or charity might be interested in any of the other surplus furniture from Penns Place, please email community@easthants.gov.uk

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