A COUNCIL has hailed a decline in the number of young people not in education, employment or training [NEETs] and a 50,000 rise in leisure centre use among its ‘positive stories’ – but recycling and re-letting of properties were among areas below target.
The details came in an Anglesey County Council report describing its end of year performance.
The Scorecard Monitoring Report – Quarter 4 (2024/25) came before the council’s executive meeting on Tuesday, June 24.
It is the final scorecard for the financial year showing a picture of the council’s performance set against the strategic objectives outlined in the Council Plan.
The report highlighted some of the success stories from the council’s year. It also described areas the council’s leadership team was “exploring and investigating” to improve.
Among the positives was that fewer young people were now leaving the island schools as ‘NEETs’.
The term refers to young people, between 16-24 , who are not engaging in employment, education or training.
The report also noted: “Only 1.9% of pupils leaving school at the end of year 11 were known not to be in employment, education or training (NEET) for 2024, an improvement on the 4% in 2023.
“This was possible due to improved identification of young people at risk of being NEET and working closely with them to identify and find successful outcomes”
Other areas where there had been improvements were in leisure, where there had been 565,000 visits to Môn Actif Leisure Centres – an increase of 50,000 visits compared to the previous year.
Some 30 businesses had also received support to develop the Welsh language as part of the ARFOR programme.
The Welsh Government funded programme is administered by Anglesey council, and the scheme aims to help to create jobs, develop the economy and strengthen the Welsh language on the island.
In other successes, the report said that 86% of tenants were “satisfied with responsive repairs” undertaken at their properties throughout the year, up from the 80% that were satisfied in 2023/24.
Ninety eight percent of planning applications were now determined on time and there had also been improvements in road targets.
In ‘whole council health’ in Freedom of Information Requests 83% of FOI requests were responded to within the time-scale, against a target of 90. The figure was an improvement on the 80% figure in 2023/24 and 72% in 2022/23.
Among areas which had not met their targets, marked in red for attention, was in housing.
It described the average number of calendar days to let let-able units of accommodation, excluding difficult to let properties, which has been 54 days, against a target of 35 days.
Deputy leader, Cllr Robin Williams, portfolio holder for housing, wanted to make sure the housing service was being “measured appropriately”.
He explained there was often a “significant gap” from when the service received the keys, after a tenancy ended following a tenant’s death and differences in legislation in Wales.
Properties also needed to be completely upgraded to meet new WHQS2 standards before re-letting.
In climate change, a red issue, the percentages for domestic waste reused, recycled, or composted was now at 65.07% below its target of 70% .
The report noted: “To mitigate and to try and improve the rate, the council will continue its aim of reducing general waste and increasing recycling by working with the local communities to educate residents.
“This is a long-term strategy, and results will not change overnight as it requires a behaviour change by the residents.
“The council has established a programme board to discuss what further mitigations can be put in place.”
The executive accepted the recommendation to review the scorecard and note improvements and areas which the Leadership Team are exploring and investigating to manage and secure further improvements into the future.
