Performance Plan and Council Tax Summary 2003

Thank you for taking the time to read this booklet.

As a publicly funded organisation, I believe it is important that we are accountable for what we do. Unless we explain what we are trying to achieve it is very difficult for you to make any judgement on our performance.

We produce this booklet to explain what we are seeking to do and how effectively we do it.

We aim to provide you with high quality services as economically and effectively as possible. The following booklet explains how ell we are performing as a council against a set of nationally agreed measures, known as "Best Value Performance Indicators". These provide a common benchmark to measure service delivery and are used to ensure local councils provide the right services to the right standards at the right price. We are also developing a range of local indicators and assessments, so that we can measure our performance against a set criteria that suit Guildford's particular priorities and issues.

Every year we collect council tax so that we can provide public services to the community, like refuse collection, recycling and our parks and countryside spaces. We only keep around 11% of that money to spend on the services that Guildford Borough delivers.

The rest goes to Surrey County Council and Surrey Police to help fund their responsibilities, such as roads, schools and policing, and to the parish councils.

We also collect business rates (national non-domestic rates), but all of this money is passed to central government where it is pooled and re-located across all local councils.

This booklet aims to explain how we collect the money and what it is used for. We have tried to set this out in a clear way. Unfortunately, local government finance has not been designed to be understood! If you have any queries about the information, please contact us for further explanation.

Finally this is the first year that we have combined the information on our prformance with that on council tax. We have done this because we think that they are both part of the same equation - what do you get for your money and is it good value?

David Williams

Chief Executive, Guildford Borough Council

Download the Performance Plan and Council Tax Summary 2003

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