SOME of Scotland's new local authorities fell seriously short of food safety inspection targets in the year 1996/97, according to a report published today by the Accounts Commission for Scotland.
The report on local authorities' environmental performance also found that most councils were unlikely to meet the Government's target for the year 2000 for recycling household waste.
The Accounts Commission Controller of Audit, Mr Robert Black, said that some councils needed to process householder planning applications more quickly.
Mr Black concluded: ''Councils provide a range of important services affecting our environment. Although many councils are performing well there is clearly scope for improvement in others.''
The report, which covers the first year of local government reorganisation, points out that the new councils had to inspect 33,625 premises across Scotland - about 4000 more than the previous year. The period examined pre-dated the E-coli food contamination scandal in North Lanarkshire in which 21 people died.
It found that although half of the councils inspected at least 90% of high-risk premises within the six-month target, the other 16 did not carry out enough inspections on schedule.
Mr Black said: ''It is reassuring that councils are giving priority to inspecting premises in the high-risk category but I am concerned that some councils fell seriously short of the target. This is especially important now that the number of premises categorised as high risk has increased in response to government guidance following the Pennington Report.''
Orkney Islands Council, which came third from bottom in meeting the ''within six months'' target for inspections, was also found not to have inspected any premises in the ''more than 24 months'' category.
By comparison, however, Orkney achieved the highest target of all 32 councils in the recycling of household waste, at just under 20%.
However, the report revealed wide fluctuations between the performances of different councils, with the Western Isles Council and North Lanarkshire achieving below 1.5% of the recycling target.
The Accounts Commission also found that the proportion of householder planning applications dealt with in an eight-week period varied from 55% (Glasgow City Council) to 92% (West Lothian Council).
However, other services revealed an encouraging picture.
Councils typically repaired 90% of faulty street lights within seven days. Inquiries from consumers about trading standards were typically dealt with on the same day, and the majority of business advice requests were dealt with in 30 days. But performance on consumer complaints was patchy.
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