Ealing Council say results of an independent survey shows that residents are 'overwhelmingly satisfied' with the authority.

The survey was carried out by independent research company ICM Government and Social Research.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3,230 residents aged 18 and over between 22 September and 11 November 2012.

Overall, 80% of residents said the council is doing a good job (the same as the last survey in 2010), 67% are satisfied with the way the council runs things (down 2%), and 54% said the council provides good value for money (up 5%).

The council has had to implement nearly £50 million of budget reductions between the two surveys, but say satisfaction with many key services used by most people also remains high.

Satisfaction with street lighting (85%) and street cleaning (81%) were both 2% higher than in 2010.

Several other major services recorded satisfaction increases of more than 10%. Parking Services satisfaction was up 21% (to 41%). Playgrounds scored 51% satisfaction (up by 12%).

Schools satisfaction also saw significant improvements; up 6% for nursery and secondary education (to 34%) and up 5% for primary education (to 37%).

Not all services scored more highly than in 2010 however. Satisfaction with refuse collection at 79% was down 5%, and recycling satisfaction fell 6% to 72%. Both these results are in line with results of the 2009 residents’ survey.

The things that concern residents are changing somewhat. Crime remains the top concern (20% of people agreed) but this is 9% down from 2009. The proportion of residents worried about the quality of health services has increased 13% (to 19%) over the same period, and those worried about the lack of jobs has continued to increase from 7% in 2009, and 15% in 2010, to 19% in 2012. Concern with litter and dirt in the streets, however, has almost halved since 2009 (from 20% to 12%).

Residents believe the borough is a safe place, with 95% saying they feel safe during the day (up 4% from 2010).

People from different ethnic backgrounds get on well in the borough according to 90% of residents (up 10% from 2010), and 88% of residents believe people respect ethnic differences (up 9%).

Council leader, Councillor Julian Bell, said: “Resident satisfaction is the most important measure of the council’s success. I’m therefore delighted that local people rate us so highly.

“With council budgets having had to be massively reduced since the last survey, these results are particularly pleasing.

“We will continue to work hard to improve resident satisfaction with refuse and recycling services given last year's challenges, and will prioritise what residents have told us is most important to them in order to ensure Ealing remains a great borough to live

 

 

 

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23rd January 2013