DISTRICT VIEW

摘要

In the hurly-burly world of local government, there is little time for pause and reflection. However, I did get one opportunity recently, when I assisted an academic researcher who was interviewing chief executives on their opinions on lessons they had learned over the last 10 years. The hour or so I spent in discussion really got me thinking about what might have been done differently, as well as acknowledging the many successes and improvements which local government has made over that period. There can be little doubt in anyone's mind that public services have improved significantly. However, this was against a backdrop of unprecedented resources being made available. The conclusion I reached was that while our services had improved, we failed to maximise 'bang for the buck".