COUNTY Hall’s Conservative leaders have set out a programme of 80 targets they say will be the benchmark for improvements to public services over the next four years.

The targets cut across all key services provided by the county council, including education and social services and are outlined in a document called The Next Four Years, which was published last week.

However, the county council has not yet set out its several of the main targets, including stating by how much it expects average GCSE passes to improve over the period.

The targets include:

Reducing the number of failing schools in the county to nil and those with serious weaknesses by three quarters

Doubling the number of KCC nursery units to 70

Trebling the length of road resurfaced

Reducing the number of temporary and mobile classrooms by 40 per cent

Cutting teacher vacancy rates to zero

Reducing by 500 the number of young people in care

Increasing the number of disabled people employed by KCC by 50 per cent

Conservative council leader Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said the targets were measurable and ambitious. “We will work with our partners in other councils and services plus the voluntary community and private sector to take this work forward,” he said.

Opposition Labour leader Cllr Mike Eddy said many of KCC’s targets were dependent on the work of other organisations and authorities. “Whether KCC can deliver on them when they are the responsibility of other agencies is a different matter,” he said.