FIRE chiefs were celebrating today after winning a glowing report from a Government financial watchdog.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority received a "good" rating in its first ever Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) by the Audit Commission.

A fire authority spokesman said the report was "good news for the people of York and North Yorkshire."

All 47 fire authorities in the country are rated either 'excellent', 'good', 'fair', 'weak' or 'poor'.

The fire CPA is an assessment of how well an authority is being run at the corporate level. It does not judge how well the fire authority responds to emergencies or other incidents.

Fire authority communications manager Steve Cluderay said: "We are delighted with the result. It is good news for the people of York and North Yorkshire, because they pay our wages.

"Now they know that they have in place managers who are doing their job, and they are getting good value for money.

"It's a balanced report, and highlights some of the things that do need attention. We have already put in place an action plan to make improvements where necessary."

Tim Watkinson, Audit Commission senior manager, said: "North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority is embracing the modernisation agenda and continues to work to contribute to the overall safety of people in North Yorkshire.

"It continues to work effectively with its partners and has well-developed plans to continue to sustain its improvement in the future.

"The fire authority recognises how important communicating with its staff is to deliver this challenging agenda, and is working hard to develop ways of achieving this.

"The authority should use this assessment to help it deliver improvement with the support of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. We would expect the authority to make its improvement plans public and we will want to track progress."

:: Where Authority is doing well

Senior managers, members and staff display a clear commitment to delivering a wide range of community safety initiatives

There is a high level of achievement and sustained improvement in its key priorities and detailed future plans are in place

Where there is room for improvement

Internal communication is not working well in all instances

Delivery of some future plans relies on achieving some challenging financial

targets

Updated: 10:37 Thursday, July 28, 2005