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News releases
Forward in Partnership
Ref : 06/089 : Date : 18-09-2006
A joint release from Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council
Leading councillors from Worthing and Adur at the Simultaneous Executive
Meeting (SEMS) this Thursday will consider a report from the shared Chief
Executive - Ian Lowrie - outlining the importance of partnership working
between the two authorities to achieve efficiency savings as required by
the Government's forthcoming White Paper.
The report gives four options one of which being for both councils to look at increasing areas of joint working. The two council's already jointly provide services in, for example, refuse collection and recycling and building control.
All councils in the UK are looking to produce greater efficiency savings and Worthing and Adur are no exception. The existing successful joint working has and will continue to produce considerable savings. The innovative practices introduced so far are considered to be at the forefront of developing creative partnership working and are being closely watched by the office of the deputy prime minister.
Worthing council leader, Keith Mercer, says: "It is entirely sensible for the two councils to consider such a step but I must emphasise that we are not looking at a merger. People have been telling us they want services to improve but without a hike in council tax. Joint working is an excellent way to achieve this. Doing the same work with less resources is the way that organisations throughout the world use to improve efficiency."
Adur leader, Neil Parkin adds: "Both councils have already disregarded the idea of merger because of the lead-in time and the costs involved. We are interested in saving money for the council tax payers not wasting it."
The report discusses the need to draw up a partnership strategy between the two councils which would be used to guide the process of joint working. Staff from both councils will be asked for their input into the strategy at a joint managers conference on 29th September.
The SEMS meeting will be held at the Adur civic centre at 7pm on Thursday 21 September
Ends
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