Local Services
The majority of people find commercial facilities such as shops, supermarkets, the post office, the chemist and banking facilities easy to get to. A bank is the least convenient of these facilities, but even here only 17% find their nearest bank difficult to access.
As far as local services are concerned, whilst the vast majority find their nearest bus station easy to get to (94%), almost a third find it difficult to get to a train station (31%).
In terms of medical facilities, whilst 82% find it easy to get to their GP or medical centre, more than a third find it difficult to get to the hospital (36%).
Schools are easy to get to for the vast majority for whom it is applicable (97%), and 81% of those in need of child care facilities find these easy to access.
As far as sports facilities are concerned, 20% find it difficult to get to their nearest sport centre, with only 24% saying it is 'very easy' to get to.
Overall, 75% find accessing recycling facilities easy, with 12% rating access as difficult.
Whilst 61% of panel members say it is easy to get to the local Link Office, and only 12% rated is as difficult, there was a further 22% who responded 'don't know', perhaps suggesting that they do not know where their nearest Link Office is.
Job Satisfaction
More than half the panel members work - 37% full time and 17% part time.
Around three-quarters of these find their work interesting and challenging, though 41% seem to have a concern over the security of their job, and almost half are less than satisfied with their level of pay.
Around a quarter seem to feel they work in a very healthy environment with a further 34% being reasonably happy with the situation.
The Council
Around two-thirds of panel members believe that the council does a fairly good job, with a further 20% rating their performance as very good and 2% as excellent.
When arriving at their assessment of the quality of the job done by the council it tends to be highly visible aspects of the service which are taken into consideration e.g. the quality of the refuse collection service, general maintenance and cleanliness of roads and footpaths, parks etc.
Panel members were asked specifically about nine particular aspects of council service - six of which relate to the way in which the council communicates with residents.
Average scores of around 6 out of 10 were achieved for satisfaction with performance across the nine service aspects measured, reflecting the overall rating of the council being 'fairly good'.
As well as indicating how satisfied they are with each of these services, panel members were asked to say to what extent they feel it matters that the council performs well in that area. The mean scores achieved for each statement at this question were much higher than the satisfaction ratings for actual performance, generally approaching 9 out of 10.
Looking at the difference between these mean scores gives an illustration of the performance gap. On the two most important issues, efficiency in service provision and value for money there is a shortfall of 3 points between the mean scores for how much performance matters and satisfaction with the council's performance.
The largest performance gap of 3.4 is seen for 'gives local people a say in how the Council allocates money between different services', and the smallest at 2.2 is for being approachable.
Equality of Provision
Two-thirds of panel members believe that the council provides services on a fair basis to all residents - 8% believing provision to be 'very fair' and 55% 'quite fair'.
Whilst around a quarter are fairly neutral on the issue (i.e. responded 'neither fair nor unfair'), 12% feel the council provides services on a unfair basis.
This group were asked where they felt the inequalities lie. Opinion was fairly widespread rather than concentrated in one particular area.
A significant proportion of panel members (40%) responded 'yes' when asked if they felt that the council needed to alter any of its services to make them more appropriate to them or their family.
When asked what they would like to see done, more than 40 different suggestions were made (a full list of these suggestions is detailed in appendix 1).
Interest in Participation
Around a third of panel members said they would be interested in taking part in workshops between council staff and residents to discuss ways of improving equality in the delivery of service; more than 300 people asked for their names to be passed to the authority to be contacted about this.
Awareness of Scrutiny Panels
Only 4% of panel members are aware of any of the work undertaken by the council's two scrutiny panels.
Policing
Around half of the panel members are aware of Humberside Police's Area Policing Teams introduced in September 2001. Only 17%, however, know who their local beat officer is, though 29% would know how to contact him/her.
All panel members were asked to say what difference local policing had made to their area. In the majority of cases the answer was 'nothing' (58%), with a further 8% responding 'don't know'.
Panel members were presented with six statements about the possible effects of this policy and were asked how strongly they agree or disagree with each on a scale from 1 to 10.
On all statements those strongly disagreeing far outweigh the proportion who strongly agree.
With mean scores ranging from a low of 3.9 to a high of 4.9 out of 10, the results suggest a general disagreement with suggestions that there have been noticeable improvements in policing since the introduction of Area Policing Teams.
Interest in Participation
Overall, 249 panel members (22%) asked for their details to be passed on to be contacted about volunteering for mentoring and supporting young offenders, becoming a Justice of the Peace or volunteer work in other areas.
The Neighbourhood
Overall, whilst 33% agreed that they feel safer in their area during daylight, only 20% feel safer after dark, with 27% signifying disagreement with the statement by giving scores of between 1 and 4.
Around a third of panel members live in an area covered by a Neighbourhood Watch scheme, though only 5% are actively involved.
Around a third of those living in areas where there is no scheme felt that a Neighbourhood Watch scheme would help to improve safety and security in their area.