ALMOST a third of the targets North Somerset Council set itself have been missed, including those relating to older people in care, children’s obesity and refuse collections.

The authority revealed it has fallen short in 17 of the 57 of its targets for the third quarter of the financial year 2011-12, although it did hit or beat 68 per cent of its objectives.

Obesity in reception age children is 8.9 per cent, slightly higher than the council’s aim of eight per cent.

The authority also missed twice as many bins as it intended - 99 bins per 100,000 collected, against an aim of 51.

North Somerset Council leader Nigel Ashton said: “We are head and shoulders above other councils with many targets, and I think we need to bear that in mind when we moan about missing a few targets.”

The number of children in care was also slightly higher than the council had hoped for, with 225 instead of 213, and the number of elderly people in care homes is 258 rather than 228.

Councillor Ashton said the reason the council had missed objectives on care homes is because North Somerset has a very old average population, and that the authority is doing everything it can to keep older people out of care homes for as long as possible.

He added: “Admitting people into homes is something we want to get down, but it is not something we can put off forever.”

A total of 57.4 per cent of pupils achieved five or more A*-C grades at GCSE for the academic year 2010-11 against a target of 62 per cent, although the average attainment has risen steadily from 46.8 per cent in 2004-05 and is currently slightly above the national average of 56.3 per cent.

But the authority did beat 68 per cent of its aims, including the number of 16-18-year-old ‘NEETS’ - those not in education, employment or training.

Economic and business targets were positive, with objectives beaten for business survival rates - currently 96 per cent -and the number of new jobs created, which was 112.

Go4Life, a scheme to get more people to be active and healthy, saw 2,000 people sign up against a target of 900.