Praise for work of Mid Ulster Council staff during ‘unique year’

A Carntogher councillor has praised Mid Ulster District Council’s efforts in what he has described as a “very unique year”.

Speaking at meeting of Council’s policy and resources committee, held on Thursday, September 9, Councillor Martin Kearney made his comments during a discussion of Council’s performance improvement annual assessment report.

The report, which runs to more than 70 pages reflects on the performance of the local authority during the 2022-21 financial year and the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on many of Council’s activities and measures of performance.

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The report notes the 2020-21 financial year was very “atypical” for Council with  large variations across communities and individuals’ lived experiences during the pandemic with a number of services closed throughout the year and some new services introduced at very short notice.

Members were advised that four of the seven statutory performance targets were met, two missed the target “significantly” and one missed the target “narrowly”. Similarly, two out of the three self-imposed indicators met or exceeded their target and one missed the target narrowly.

It was also made clear that Council still performs well across many of the corporate health and service indicators in what has been the most challenging of years and is keen to retain some of the positive lessons learned during the pandemic to build towards achieving previous performance levels.

Councillor Martin Kearney proposed the report was approved and commended it in its entirety.

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“Enacting our emergency plan is something that we have talked about many times and didn’t realise we would have to do it,” he said.

“I just want to praise the staff and their ability to meet the three ‘Rs’ – response, reconfiguration and recovery.

“We are in the recovery phase now and the staff have all worked well to see this through.

The one fact I took out of it, was the amount of our waste that goes into landfill – we only have 3.4 per cent of waste going into landfill, that is a very small percentage and I think that is worth praising.”

Cllr Kearney’s proposal was then seconded by Councillor Sean McGuigan and the committee voiced its approval.