THE poor public perception of West Somerset District Council does not accord with its high levels of customer satisfaction and the authority's top performance in certain service areas, members were told on Wednesday night. The inspectors behind the most recent Audit Commission assessment of the council told members that the public had a "rather negative perception" of the authority which was having an effect on both councillors and staff. Speaking at a meeting of the full council, the commission's relations manager Robert Hathaway said the council's external communications was "still an area of challenge", although he praised the council's commitment to change. He said inspectors had noted huge improvements since last year's all encompassing comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) which had branded the council as a 'weak' authority. Service delivery within planning, housing and benefits had improved, there was better internal communication and strong partnerships had been formed with a raft of organisations. However, the commission's audit manager Terry Bowditch told councillors it was vital they planned ahead financially so they were fully aware of the future impact of decisions taken now. He said the format of the current three year plan was not suitable and said it was "absolutely essential" the authority formed clear links between all its various priorities and plans. Mr Hathaway said there was clear potential for the council to continue moving forward and described the authority as "a small council with large ambitions". He said trust and credibility would take time to build as the authority was subjected to "significant scrutiny of its actions". Council leader Steven Pugsley said he was keen to see councillors "buying in" to the authority's medium-term mission statement known as Destination 06 as staff had already fully committed to it. He said: "The picture is generally a healthy one, although some weaknesses do remain." But Cllr Keith Ross called for more commitment to improving external communications and said it was vital councillors from all political sides worked together, "I hope communications doesn't simply mean papering over the cracks," he said. "We need to have good base to spread real news; that's not just employing someone to churn out press releases. "We had advertorials in the local paper that were not truthful and they went down very badly with the community and that is part of our poor public perception." Cllr Pugsley said the council could not achieve its goals without public support and added: "We will be able to achieve more if we work in partnership with the people of West Somerset."