ENFIELD Council needs to make tough decisions and get better value for money, says a new Audit Commission report.

The commission has completed a review of council services which highlighted the need for improvement in the street and waste management sectors.

It pinpointed that the council's budget priorities did not reflect the ambitions of the authority.

The commission said that the council's vision did not drive frontline service delivery or strategic budget decision making and was now being faced with volatile surges in demand while suffering financial struggles.

A series of recommendations have been made to the authority. One of them is balancing the books and not using its reserves to meet overspends.

It was not all bad news for the Civic Centre. The commission praised the modernisation of the council and the improvements in its education and regeneration departments.

In a joint statement, council leader Cllr Doug Taylor and chief executive David Plank said that the report will help them to build good services.

They said: "The Audit Commission has said that Enfield has the ideas, people and money to achieve improved services.

"Only by continuously challenging our approach seeing what works well and what doesn't will we maintain our drive towards continuous improvement.

"Of course, we have in place our own systems for improvement and are already working on a number of the areas highlighted in the report and we welcome constructive criticism from an independent watchdog."