THERE is significant room for improvement in the way public services in Newport are run, the head of the council has admitted.

Members of Newport City Council’s Labour-run cabinet were presented with a report showing the authority has made improvements in a number of statutory measures such as school attendance and recycling, but performance in a number of areas remained low in comparison with elsewhere in Wales.

Leader Cllr Debbie Wilcox said: “I absolutely recognise the need to do better here.

“There are certainly areas for improvement for us.”

She added the issues were at least partially the result of the UK Government’s austerity programme, which had resulted in the council forced to make cuts year on year.

“You can’t get into year eight of austerity and not expect it to start to bite,” she said.

“We are between a rock and a hard place.

“There’s simply not enough money to run public services.”

And chief executive Will Godfrey said: “We are good at a lot of things.

"We are not very good at enough, but there are not many areas where we are bad.

“We have a lot of services which are good, but to a degree just standing still is hard and improving is becoming more and more difficult.”

The report also showed the council had made progress in clearing fly-tipping, moving from 16th in Wales to third in just a year, and all 15-year-olds in care left school with qualifications over the past three years.

Another report presented at the same meeting showed the council was meeting targets in areas including ensuring older people are able to live independently, helping young people into education, work or training and educational outcomes.

But improvement is required in ensuring social services and accommodation residents need are available as well as preventing re-offending by young people.

Cllr Wilcox added the impending loss of European Union investment would pose a major challenge, saying “I’m very worried about it”.

But she added the council was already in talks with organisations including The Prince’s Trust to determine if funding for services can be maintained.

The reports can be viewed at tinyurl.com/y8dupwcn