Community Safety

 Corporate Governance

• Crime continues to fall – we have seen a 35% drop in crime over the last 7 years
• Community Payback contract with the Probation Trust has resulted in 7,600 free hours of work saving the Council over £85K
• Every 4 year old child in the Borough received a road safety pack helping to keep your children safe when walking

• We have saved over £1m compared to our Budget for 2010/11. This is the 7th year that we have successfully balanced the books.
• Hyndburn Council did not increase its element of Council Tax in 2010/11
• Sickness absence levels at an all-time low saving the Council £155K
• 115 people were caught for benefit fraud and we are recovering the £379K they fraudulently claimed

 Economy

 Education

• Accrington’s Victorian Market Hall was  named the ‘Best Indoor Market’ in the UK following a £2 million refurbishment
• 95 local people benefited from the apprenticeship scheme run by the Council with Accrington and Rossendale College.
• Our Employment Information Pack provided advice to people who were looking for work

• We are working with 7 Hyndburn students to help them obtain a Business and Finance Diploma
• 20 of our most vulnerable families have had intensive and co-ordinated support seeing real improvements in educational attainment and school attendance.
• We helped finance the first ‘eco classroom’ in the UK

 Environment

 Equalities

• The Council was declared a ‘4 STAR’ authority by the British Cleaning Council for our clean streets.
• 35% of household waste is recycled and 93% of residents are satisfied with our recycling services.
• 4 of our parks were awarded the prestigious national Green Flag
• For successfully reducing harmful vehicle emissions we achieved the Energy Saving Trust’s ‘Gold Award’ for the second year running

• We were assessed as being an ‘Achieving’ authority for our equalities work
• We gained funding to provide a state of the art disabled changing facility at Hyndburn Leisure Centre, enabling people with the most profound disabilities to enjoy swimming and other sports at the Leisure centre.

 Health

 Housing and Regeneration

• Over 13,000 children benefited from free pitch hire, and over 450 adult matches continued to benefit from half price pitch hire.
• We gave out over 400 free crown green bowling passes.
• The Council invested a further £63K this year aimed at improving allotment provision, encouraging local food growing, promoting healthier lifestyles and encouraging community engagement.

• The Acorn Park housing development got underway with 36 out of the first phase of 84 dwellings completed.
• We acquired 53 low demand or unfit houses taking the overall total to 501.
• We carried out a total of 133 Disabled Facility Grant adaptations to properties to enable people with a disability to remain in their own home.
• The Council and our partners prevented 251 households from becoming homeless.