The car is by far the most popular form of transport with relatively few journeys being made by public transport - between 3% and 10% of all journeys made. In fact, more people walk than use public transport, particularly for shorter journeys.
Amongst those who travel to work by car, the vast majority self drive (86%) with only a quarter claiming ever to car share.
A significant proportion of car drivers claimed that no improvements to public transport would encourage them to leave their car at home and travel to work by public transport (38%).
A quarter of those who use their car to travel to work may be encouraged to use public transport if there were more regular or frequent bus services (rural residents in particular), with a further 12% calling for more buses running both earlier in the morning or later in the evening.
There was a significant minority (15%) who claimed they may use the buses more if they ran to the places they need to go - a number of these specifically mentioned that buses do not currently run into industrial estates.
When car users were presented with a list of possibilities, there were some encouraging signs that improving public transport may help to reduce car usage overall. When asked about using their car in general (not just for journeys to work) On a between a third and a half gave a score of 4 or 5 to nine of the ten suggested improvements (on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 means that the respondent would be ‘very likely’ to use their car less often).
Cheaper fares was the most popular suggestion with almost half claiming they would use their car less often.
Women seemed somewhat more amenable than men to the idea of using public transport more frequently, and the under 24s were the least easily persuaded to leave their cars at home.
Overall, half of all panel members claimed to have used public transport in North Lincolnshire in the last twelve months - 46% having used buses and 16% trains. However, in many cases use has been infrequent.
Those who do use the bus service appear to be reasonably happy with it. The main exception being the level of fares with less than half of bus users agreeing that ‘fares are reasonable’. In fact, 29% disagree with this particular statement.
Bus users were asked to suggest ways in which the bus service in North Lincolnshire could be improved. The list of suggestions was very similar to that given by car users discussed earlier.
Regular train users were asked to comment in a similar way about the train service. However, there were only 45 panel members who had used the service at least once a month and therefore data on these questions is not statistically reliable and so will not be commented on in any detail.
Less than a quarter of panel members had attempted to get information about bus or train services recently. In the majority of cases, those who had looked for information had found it easy to obtain, accurate and easy to understand.
The vast majority felt that attracting new business to North Lincolnshire and helping existing businesses to expand should be the main focus for the Partnership.
One of the aims of the Partnership is to address the issue of ‘developing community spirit’; panel members were asked for their own interpretation of this phrase. Whilst 16% felt that the phrase had no meaning, amongst the remainder interpretation tended to centre around three key issues - knowing and helping one’s neighbours, organised community activities and people working together to bring about improvements to their own local area.
Overall, 88% of panel members felt that The Partnership was a good idea and 42% said they would be interested in receiving information about becoming a resident member.
Involvement in voluntary work
Around a quarter of panel members are currently involved in some type of voluntary work, and a further 10% claimed to have thought about doing so.
Panel members were presented with a list of eight potential areas of concern and were asked to prioritise the three which they consider the council should give attention to in their area. Interestingly 6% stated that there were no problems in their area.
Four of the issues in the list emerged as being much more important than the others - dog fouling just topped the list, with litter, vandalism and damaged pavements not far behind.
The concept of introducing a ‘neighbourhood management system’ was very well received, with 92% of panel members rating it a good idea.
Similarly, 89% rated the concept of neighbourhoods setting their own standards of service a good idea.
In terms of the method of consultation to set these standards, questionnaires to each household was by far the most preferred method.
The majority of panel members would use a skip if brought to their community (85%).
Less than half were aware that the Council’s Trading Standards Department provides a free consumer and trader advice service (46%), though almost two thirds claimed they would know how to contact Trading Standards if they needed to (64%).
Around two-thirds of panel members are conversant with their consumer rights.
The majority felt that the best method of teaching people about their consumer rights would be for the council to publish leaflets (68%). A significant minority (21%) felt that teaching consumer education at school would be appropriate.
Panel members tended to rate all the areas of Trading Standards’ responsibilities as being of a broadly similar level of importance with between 82% and 92% giving a score of either 4 or 5 (where 5 represents ‘very important’) on all measures.
When it comes to metric weights and measures, it is perhaps hardly surprising to find that the older the respondent the less comfortable they are with the metric system. Men appear to be more comfortable with the metric system than women.
Overall 17% of panel members have bought goods or services over the internet. In 95% of cases the transaction has been trouble free.
Reaction was very mixed to the range of measures suggested as means by which Humberside Police could ‘increase highly visible police patrols’.
Whilst the majority would be happy to see police station enquiry desks manned by civilian staff (71%), they would be unhappy with reduced opening hours where police officers man enquiry desks.
Two-thirds of panel members were happy with the suggestion that civilian organisations rather than police officers could be used to escort abnormal loads on roads.
The concept of putting CID officers into uniform to make police officers more visible received a mixed reaction with 44% being in favour (scoring 4 or 5) and 34% being against (scores of 1 or 2).
Both suggestions for reducing ‘wasted’ police time received wide spread approval.
Just over half of those who pay council tax would be willing to pay more on the police element of the council tax if it meant having more police patrols and more police on the streets (53%). A quarter of these would be prepared to pay £1 per week with a further 20% quoting figures of between £1 and £5.
Only a third of panel members were aware that the police in North Lincolnshire have recently adopted a system whereby individual police officers are allocated to specific geographic areas, and are responsible for problem solving in those areas. Most had found out by word of mouth (42%), from the local newspaper (31%), or been told by their local police officer (16%).
Although only 26% of panel members currently know who their local beat officer is, 77% feel it is important that they should know. Similarly, 82% believe it is important to know how to contact the local beat officer though only 32% currently know how.