A BASILDON council team that tries to stop families being made homeless has failed to meet its targets.

The Preventing Homelessness team at the council didn’t meet its target for dealing with inquiries from residents between April 2008 and March this year.

The council claimed the target was not a good measure because it could only serve the number of people coming to it for help.

But Labour councillor Paul Kirkman said the council should not set targets it couldn’t meet.

Mr Kirkman, ward member for Fryerns, said: “Why have they got a target they can’t reach?

“It’s a valuable service.

“But the fact they’re not reaching their target could mean they are not performing well or the target is wrong.”

The report, presented to the council’s community and housing scrutiny group, said its target had been missed because a staff member was off sick, some staff were still undergoing training and the target needed to be adjusted.

The council said the team had dealt with 163 inquiries from the public over the past year.

David Dadds, Tory ward member for Billericay East, said a target was not appropriate because the service was demand led and claimed it was not failing the public.

He said: “I think the standards are something we can be very proud of, officers do their best to prevent homelessness.”