A COUNCIL chief has urged his authority to keep monitoring Government targets - even though they are about to be abolished.

South Bucks District Council chief executive Chris Furness said some of the targets were "useful" despite the Government climb-down.

But the council's leader said the likely new list of demands from Whitehall was still "incredible".

These include whether residents think they "get on" with people from different backgrounds.

It comes as the Government gears up to replace "Best Value Performance Indicators" from March 31 with a new regime.

Mr Furness told tonight's meeting of the council's cabinet: "There will be less to be monitored by the district council.

"But certainly at this point I am taking the view that a lot of the performance indicators that we currently monitor are useful.

"While the Government might not need us to monitor them, we should continue to do so."

But council chairman Adrian Busby hit out at Government targets - and branded the new ones "absolutely incredible".

The 35 draft targets included "per centage of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area".

Cllr Busby said: "I just think this is a further example of the macro-management that this Government is insisting on."

He poured particular scorn on one target: "achievement gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers achieving the expected level at Key Stages 2 and 4".

Cllr Busby added: "It is another example of some civil servant sitting away somewhere concocting some way of trying to push central Government management to the lowest possible level across the country."

Others such as the amount of household waste sent to landfill were sensible, he conceded.

With a smile he said: "I have had my political rant and now I'll shut up."