Background
Councils are now required under central government's new Agenda for Modernising Local Government to involve and consult their communities on a wide range of issues and for several different purposes. These include identifying needs and priorities for the area, reviewing service quality and implementing the statutory duty of best value. North Lincolnshire Council commissioned SMSR, an independent research company, to formulate a community panel to contribute to these community engagement requirements.
The first questionnaire was circulated in March 1999 and 775 responses were received which represents a 46% response rate. The key findings to the survey are set out in this executive summary, under the six main headings of the questionnaire.
Living in North Lincolnshire
The first section of the questionnaire was aimed at finding out how panel members felt about living in the North Lincolnshire area. The survey presented several statements on quality of life in North Lincolnshire and panel members were asked if they agreed or disagreed. A sizeable majority of respondents (83.3%) agreed that North Lincolnshire is an attractive place to live and 75% agreed it offers a good choice of schools.
Panel members were then asked to indicate their level of satisfaction with leisure facilitates for people in four different age groups, these being children under 12, teenagers, adults and the elderly. Six out of ten respondents indicated they were with the facilities provided for adults. The highest level of dissatisfaction was indicated for facilities provided for teenagers.
To assess what residents feel about the image of the North Lincolnshire area panel members were given positive/negative statements and asked to mark them on a scale of 1 - 5. Although the North Lincolnshire area was assessed on the positive side for all statements it was particularly high for friendliness and attractiveness.
North Lincolnshire Council's Identity and Image
Thinking about the image of the new North Lincolnshire Council panel members were given a number of positive/negative statements and asked to rate the image of the council on a scale of 1 to 5. The results clearly show that the highest assessment of the council is that it is modern and friendly. The majority of respondents (54.9%) indicated the image of the council was good or very good.
The Role and Performance of North Lincolnshire Council in Local Life
Panel members were asked to indicate the level of importance the council should attach to a number of its services, and to express their level of satisfaction with the current quality of these services. The following table shows respondents' views to each of the questions.
| Service |
Level of Importance (%)
(essential + very important) |
Level of Satisfaction (%)
(satisfied + very satisfied) |
| Adult Education |
53.8
|
92.2 |
| Community Safety |
78.1
|
64.4 |
| Pavements |
77.1
|
46.0 |
| Grounds maintenance/ grass cutting |
50.3
|
86.3 |
| Health services |
96.9
|
80.4 |
| Housing services |
79.9
|
65.9 |
| Libraries |
58.4
|
91.3 |
| Leisure centres/Swimming pools |
63.6
|
76.1 |
| Parks/gardens/open spaces |
65.6
|
83.0 |
| Planning Services |
55.0
|
72.8 |
| Public Transport |
82.8
|
52.8 |
| Recycling |
74.6
|
81.1 |
| Refuse Collection |
94.0
|
89.6 |
| Roads |
91.7
|
45.6 |
| School Education |
96.2
|
88.0 |
| Social Services |
84.5
|
80.4 |
| Street Cleaning |
78.7
|
58.8 |
| Street Lighting |
85.9
|
87.2 |
| Trading Standards |
70.7
|
92.9 |
| Youth Services |
73.4
|
50.3 |
Focusing on perceptions of North Lincolnshire Council panel members were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements. A higher proportion of panel members disagreed with "the council looks after the interests of all residents fairly" than agreed, almost a quarter indicated that they did not know. The majority of panel members do not perceive the council as being responsive to the needs of residents.
The majority of panel members (60.5%) were not aware that since it came into existence North Lincolnshire Council has been required to reduce its spending by over £20 m.
Access to Council Services
This section of the survey dealt with those questions asking panel members how accessible they have found the council in terms of the information it makes available and ease of contact with the council. The majority of respondents felt they do not receive enough information about all aspects of the council. Of the information they did receive only a small percentage indicated they had experienced difficulties in understanding it. The majority of panel members who have made contact with the council recently did so by telephone. Two thirds of respondents (66.9%) who had contacted the council in the past two years identified they were either satisfied or very satisfied that they were dealt with promptly. Seven out of ten respondents showed they were satisfied or very satisfied with the helpfulness of staff and a further 65.2% were satisfied or very satisfied with how the matter was resolved.
Opportunities for Participation
When asked if they would know how to contact their councillor, 37.4% of respondents said they would and 48.7% said they would not. Over half the respondents did not know the name of their local councillor, almost three-quarters did not know the name of the leader of the council and just over half did not know who the mayor was. However, over three-quarters of respondents (76.4%) said they intend to vote in the next council elections. Although 20.4% of panel members felt they did not know whether or not the council does enough to involve local people in the decisions that affect the lives of residents, two-thirds of respondents said they do not think the council does enough. The most frequent suggestion to encourage local residents to become more involved in local decision making was for the council to give out more information.
Future Priorities
In this section panel members were asked questions which look to the future and was aimed at finding out how panel members think the council should develop its services to meet the longer-term needs of the North Lincolnshire area. Panel members were asked to prioritise a list of ten objectives. Almost 80% of respondents indicated "Providing more employment opportunities" was the highest priority.
Due to increased regulation of waste landfill sites there are limited opportunities to dispose of household refuse using this method. When asked to consider alternatives to landfill 9 out of ten respondents indicated they agree or strongly agree wit large scale recycling. Less than 2% of respondents indicated disagreement with large scale recycling as an alternative method of waste disposal. The majority of respondents (86.6%) either agreed or strongly agreed that the council should adopt a waste strategy that causes the least harm to the environment even thought his maybe more expensive. Less than 10% respondents disagreed with this statement.
Other Comments
Finally, panel members were invited to make additional comments about what they feel the council should do. The most frequent answer (24 cases) suggested the council should keep expenditure down.
June 1999