The government has commissioned a huge survey, taking in people’s feelings about their councils and communities and Bracknell Forest Council has fared reasonably well.
The 2008 Place Survey provides information on people’s perceptions of their local area and the local services they receive. This release summarises the headline findings for England and Government Office regions with results for individual local authorities shown in the accompanying tables.
The survey collects information on 18 national indicators for local government, used to measure local government performance for 152 county councils, metropolitan district councils, London boroughs and unitary authorities. While the Place Survey is primarily intended for use at a local level, national and regional results are provided for benchmarking purposes.
Across the nation, 80 percent were satisfied with their local area as a place to live. Here in Bracknell Forest, 83.4% of the public said they were satisfied. So, we were above the national average but not as good as the West Berkshire at 84.7% (and our neighbours down the road at Basingstoke & Deane 86.9%). Lower down the list were Reading at 75.7% and Slough 63.6%.
More disappointingly, in the poll where residents expressed their views about whether or not they were satisfied or fairly satisfied with how their Council ran things, only 49.9% of Bracknell Forest Council residents agreed. That is less than half. This compared with Wokingham 52.1%, Windsor & Maidenhead 52.7 and neighbouring Basingstoke & Deane 58.1%. Only West Berkshire fared worse in the Royal County, at a miserable 47.9%.
Whilst Bracknell Forest residents were generally happy with the way the Council kept public land clear of litter and refuse (60.9%), local waste tips (57.5%) and with doorstep recycling (60.4%), only 31.9% were satisfied with local transport information.
Older people were generally happy with their home and neighbourhood (84.4%) but, overall, only 24.5% of residents felt that older people in our local area get the help and support they need to continue to live at home for as long as they want to.
Only 15% of people felt that they had sufficient information about what to do in a large scale emergency. Editor’s note: obviously, residents would be advised to keep listening to Radio Bracknell in the event of a major civil emergency in Berkshire!
Under a quarter of the population locally felt that drug dealing or drunkeness was a problem in their local area. Obviously, for that 25% or so that did feel it was a problem this is an issue but the Council might take some comfort from the fact that three-quarters of residents do not see this is as a major problem. This compared with around 30% nationally.
Just over a quarter, 26%, agreed that the police and other local public services are successfully dealing with anti-socal behaviour and crime in their local area. This is an area addressed by the Council and Thames Valley Police recently at their public conference.
In an interesting anecdote, the poll reports that 82.2% of our local population said their health was good or very good.
These figures and their implications for the community, the Council and other statutory authorities will be analysed in detail over the coming months and will make interesting reading!
June 25, 2009 at 11:57 am |
I’m not surprised the survey showed the vast majority of residents are quite happy living in Bracknell Forest. Our own surveys and those of the Borough Council have tended to confirm this.
Similarly, I am not surprised the Borough Council came out of this exercise relatively badly.Although I have no reason to believe it is not well run, it is led by a Conservative administration that has scant regard for public opinion.
It pays lip service to many community and voluntary groups within the borough and tends to rely on focus groups and the so-called ‘1500 Group’ of residents, to inform its decision-making processes. Consequently residents are rarely widely consulted about anything, including decisions that have a direct impact on their daily lives, such as the level of council tax increase or the introduction of alternate bin collections.
The criticisms of the Council on social care and public transport are also well founded. The bar for gaining personal care in the home is extremely high and the cost to those who are forced to pay for this care is quite exorbitant (over £500 a week for one daily carer to attend). Public transport is poor and while the blame for this can be laid at other doors, the Council has done little to improve services or provide additional support.
The abysmal record and low public perception of the police is wholly justified in my view. Although the message seems to be slowly sinking in amongst the higher echolons of TVP that the public want less PC and more common sense used by the force, detection rates remain disappointingly low and we have yet to really see the increase in ‘bobbies on the beat’ that the public so desperately want.