AN independent group of local government officials has arrived in Wiltshire to carry out a review of the county council's perform-ance.

Wiltshire County Council has invited the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA), which works closely with the Local Government Association, as part of a local government improvement review pro-gramme.

The intention is to help councils recognise their strengths and identify any areas for improvement.

A team of seven people, all with extensive experience, arrived on Monday to review overall council performance.

They will stay all week to assess the council under three categories: leadership, democratic and community engagement and perform-ance management.

The team, led by Chris-topher Duffield, chief execu-tive of the London borough of Bexley, is meeting and talking to a wide variety of people in the area to under-stand their perception of how the council works and delivers its services.

Council leader Peter Chalke has himself been part of the team that reviewed the performance of Brighton and Hove Council, and is shortly to be involved in the review of Kent County Council.

He said: "We are always striving to improve the way the county council works and how we deliver services and felt it would be very useful to have this independent appraisal of how we are doing.

"I believe there is a lot we are doing right but we look forward to hearing from the agency's team of experts where our strengths lie and their suggestions for the ways in which we can improve. The review is about us being open as a council."

The council will publish the initial findings of the review following the visit and will use the final written report to draw up and publish an improvement plan with the assistance of the I&DeA.

www.wiltshire.gov