COUNCIL bosses are set to give themselves a host of tight targets in a bid to make life better and safer for people in North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire County Council is proposing that dozens of "key performance indicators" should be established to check if its performance is up to scratch.

The targets range from cutting road deaths and reducing doorstep cold callers to tackling rights of way problems and repairing more roads.

They include:

Reducing the number of young offenders who re-offend and the number of children in care who offend

Reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on the county's roads by at least 15 per cent

Increasing the number of properties protected from flooding by about 40 a year.

On education, the authority would aim to improve exam results - for example, by increasing the number of pupils leaving care with at least one GCSE.

It would also aim to ensure 60 per cent of secondary schools are adapted for disabled pupils by 2005, compared to 40 per cent previously.

On transport, targets would include increasing the number of bus journeys and reducing the number of principal roads in need of repair. The council would aim to ensure at least 55 per cent of paths are easy to use and install at least 100 new signposts and way markers.

Other targets include restricting the growth in household waste to just two per cent per annum, increasing the number of planning applications dealt with in 13 weeks and improving satisfaction rates with the library service.

A council spokesman said the targets had been proposed in the summer and had then been put out to consultation.

They will be considered at a council executive meeting on Tuesday, before going back to full council for approval later this month.

The system would then come in next month, with quarterly meetings examining whether targets were being met.

A report to the executive by chief executive Jeremy Walker says there should be monitoring of information, with a "traffic light system" used to indicate where there is a risk that a target will not be met and that corrective action is needed.

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, October 09, 2003