A REVIEW of services provided by Salisbury district council has shown many improvements, although there are still some areas of concern.

The council uses a mixture of national and local performance indicators to measure success and identify risks and problem areas.

In 69 per cent of the council's work, performance is good enough to put Salisbury in the top 25 per cent of services nationally.

Last year, 44 per cent of services reached this standard.

The planning department has had a good year and all targets for processing planning applications have been exceeded.

In housing services, 100 per cent of homeless applications are determined within the government's target of 33 working days and reliance on the use of bed and breakfast accommodation has been slashed from 7,400 nights a year to 150.

There have also been improvements in the repair of council homes, tenant satisfaction and the speed of processing benefit claims.

Areas of concern include a £200,000 overspend at the troubled Five Rivers leisure centre, which was taken back into council control last year, and a failure to encourage more black residents and people from ethnic minorities to get involved with decision-making processes and sports development activities.

The amount of household waste that is recycled has fallen short of local targets, although the council hopes plans to improve and better publicise the black box scheme will encourage more people to recycle their rubbish.

Deputy leader of the council John Collier said: "There have been some stunning examples of improvement in the services we have provided this year.

"We are always striving to improve and are not complacent in our relentless drive to provide value for money services."