THE 83 per cent of Warrington people who, as part of a survey, recently said they were happy living in the borough, could be forgiven for wondering perhaps they were too easy to please.
Hard on the heels of the Ofsted report which castigated the borough council’s for its poor services for safeguarding vulnerable children, we now have an Audit Commission report which hands out three “red flags” to public services which, it claims, are not performing as well as they might.
But the 83 per cent of “happy” residents should pause before they change their view. We think the Audit Commission report has been unduly harsh on Warrington.
Consider this. The borough council was quick to hold up its hands over the Ofsted report and to take swift action to put matters right. There was no attempt to dodge the issue.
This time, however, things are different. First, the Audit Commission report is not solely about the borough council but about just about every public service in the borough. And this time the borough – that is the council and more than 40 partnership organisations – is not taking it lying down.
They say the Audit Commission has got it wrong and point to numerous inconsistencies to prove it. In particularly, they point out that there is no level playing field, no common standard by which to compare one area with another.
In fact, the Commission has admitted that some areas with only one or two red flats are in fact performing worse than Warrington.
Nor does there appear to be any attempt to make allowances for the poor hand history has dealt present day Warrington.
The town gets red flags because of employment and health inequalities between the deprived areas and the affluent suburbs. What does the Audit Commission expect? Particularly during a recession? Does the same problem not exist in every other part of the country?
This report is the first of its type. It replaces an earlier version which looked at local authority services only and, in Warrington’s case, seemed more than satisfied with what it found. We cannot believe things can have gone so badly wrong so quickly.
THE 83 per cent of Warrington people who, as part of a survey,
recently said they were happy living in the borough, could be forgiven
for wondering perhaps they were too easy to please.
Has town been harshly judged?
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About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
