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Auditors have praised Falkirk Council’s ‘good’ standard of services across the board in a recent inspection with inspectors highlighting the improvements in education and refuse collection. 

However, in the audit carried out by Audit Scotland on behalf of The Accounts Commission (the public spending watchdog for local government) in November 2014, auditors noted of a number of areas for improvement.

These included:

  • Clearer plans on how to achieve substantial savings required to meet its budget requirements (£46m over the next three years);
  • An increase in the rate of change across services and a greater ambition for its savings plans;
  • Plans for business transformation need to be more ambitious.

Councillor Craig Martin, Leader of Falkirk Council said: “The Council will consider the report shortly and prepare an improvement plan which will take us forward and address the issues raised by The Accounts Commission.”

“However the financial challenges facing the Council cannot be under estimated. Members need to work together to explore all possible ways in which our budget can be balanced.

“We are fully confident that we can work across the board to ensure that we address the challenges highlighted by auditors most of which are common to all Council’s in Scotland.”

Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, Leader of the Opposition said: “The audit took place late last year and reflects a point in time.  Members are focussed on working together to ensure the best services we can for the community of the Falkirk Council area, given the scale of challenge the Council faces.”

The report will be presented formally to a meeting of Falkirk Council in October 2015 with auditors scheduled to return in 2016 to review progress.