Fenland District Council has successfully applied to the Audit Commission to undergo another corporate performance assessment (CPA) that will look at upgrading the council s performance rating to be among the best in the country. The commission s CPA team

Fenland District Council has successfully applied to the Audit Commission to undergo another corporate performance assessment (CPA) that will look at upgrading the council's performance rating to be among the best in the country.

The commission's CPA team has accepted Fenland's application for another assessment, which will take place later this year and is an acknowledgement that the council is worthy of being judged 'Good' or 'Excellent' on a national performance scale.

The Audit Commission has already praised the council's financial, people and performance management and the quality of the services it provides.

This is reflected also in the recent Charter Mark award the Council received for its customer service, through the Fenland @ Your Service Shops and its contact centre. The Council has also achieved national Beacon Status for waste and recycling as well as a host of awards.

Fenland has come a long way in just five years.

When Tim Pilsbury took over as chief executive in November 2002, the council was judged to be failing the community. Major improvements followed, with the new corporate management team at the helm and when the CPA team inspected the authority in April 2004 the council performance was judged to be 'Fair'.

Since then the Audit Commission has made the measurement criteria tougher and authorities must now apply for a CPA when they think they are ready to move up to a category that better reflects further improvements.

It is against this backdrop of tougher CPA criteria that Fenland has succeeded in winning approval from the Audit Commission for a CPA team to return to the council. When the assessors arrive later this year, Fenland will be looking to move into the 'Good' or 'Excellent' CPA categories.

Leader of the Council Geoffrey Harper, said: "We are quietly confident that we will be able to demonstrate that we should now be among the top authorities in the country who are judged to be 'Good' or 'Excellent'.