You’ve delivered your verdict on local life and public services.
And the findings are proving to be quite a challenge for the organisations charged with running those services.
The “Place” survey – something every council has had to carry out – shows that while you’re generally pretty happy with where you live and your local services, you’re less happy about the organisations that provide them.
Almost three quarters of you like your area as a place to live and four out of five people over 65 are happy with their homes and neighbourhood.
Yet satisfaction with the way the council runs things has fallen to 41% (a drop that is mirrored across the country). Only 30% feel they are kept informed about public services, while less than a quarter of you feel you can influence local decisions.
Nearly 1,600 residents completed the survey, which will be carried out every two years and feeds into a wider assessment of how public services are performing.
The council and its partners have pledged to use the research to improve life for local people and the way they communicate with residents. Council leader Peter Smith said: “The picture is the same up and down the country. People are happier with the places where they live and services like libraries, schools and bin collections than they are with the organisations that provide them.
“All local public services now need to act on these findings. We must improve the way we involve and listen to people.”
Ideas being explored include making extra efforts to ensure our streets and public spaces are litter free, better communications and encouraging more people to get involved in voluntary work. (Wigan has the lowest number of volunteers in the whole of the county.)
Councillors have also given the green light to a radical overhaul of customer services which will avoid people having to wait to have their calls answered or being passed from one department to another.
What do you think?
To comment on the findings write to The Editor, Borough Life, FREEPOST NWW3502A, Wigan WN1 1XZ. You can see the full results at Communities (external link) (search on Place Survey)
What you told us
The good news...
- Almost three quarters of residents (72%) are satisfied with their area as a place to live;
- four out of five (79%) people aged 65 and over are satisfied with their homes and neighbourhood;
- concerns about drug use/dealing are falling with 31% of residents thinking this is a problem;
- 68% of people believe people from different backgrounds get on well together;
- 58% have a strong sense of belonging to their local area, and people are positive about bin collections and recycling.
But on the down side...
- Satisfaction with the way the council runs things has fallen to 41% (a drop that is mirrored across the country);
- 55% say teenagers hanging around on streets are a problem, while 47% are concerned about litter;
- only 30% feel they are kept informed about public services;
- less than a quarter feel they can influence local decisions;
- only 9% are actively involved in a neighbourhood watch or community association and only 19% regularly undertake voluntary work, and
- just one in five feel that the council and police are dealing with concerns about antisocial behaviour and crime.
