Dudley councillors have voiced their growing frustration after a recent report revealed the council missed six of its main performance targets in the first quarter of the financial year. At the Core Business Scrutiny Committee meeting on 23 September, members examined the mixed performance figures, which showed the council exceeded two targets, met three within tolerance, but failed to meet six crucial benchmarks.
Among the most concerning was the council’s response time to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. Statutory requirements dictate that such enquiries should be answered within 20 days, yet the council managed to respond on time to only 50.7 per cent of FOI enquiries in April. This falls significantly short of Dudley’s 90 per cent target.
Councillor Quasim Mugal expressed his dissatisfaction, remarking, “This is the third time this issue has been raised in committee during my tenure, and it continues to deteriorate. We repeatedly hear that demand is high and resources are stretched, but at some point, we must acknowledge that we are not meeting our obligations and need to allocate adequate resources. I am tired of the same excuses.”
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Another missed target involved the council’s Dudley Council Plus Service, where the number of incoming calls rose by 31 per cent compared to the previous year, reaching 123,741 calls. However, only 66 per cent of these calls were answered, well below the 85 per cent target. Officers attributed this shortfall partly to staff being diverted to other duties amid increased demand following the introduction of new waste collection services during a traditionally busy period.
Councillor Phil Atkins also criticised the council’s inability to forecast demand adequately, commenting, “We hear the same rationale time and time again-high demand, insufficient capacity, inability to predict busy periods like bin rollout changes or winter conditions. In my work with the NHS, we can predict patient numbers with remarkable accuracy, so the council’s struggles seem quite farcical.”
Additional targets missed included sickness absence rates among full-time employees, compliance with subject access requests, the percentage of corporate complaints receiving full responses within ten working days, and the implementation rate of high-priority audit recommendations.
A report presented to the committee by Gurdeep Singh-Aulakh, associate director for technology, innovation, business intelligence, and insight, acknowledged areas of positive performance such as income and council tax collection and ICT infrastructure availability. However, it also highlighted the need for improvement in customer access, workforce wellbeing, statutory compliance, and governance measures. The report stated, “Management focus will continue to address underperformance and complete outstanding target-setting and reporting arrangements to ensure robust performance management throughout 2026/27.”