70% of city residents satisfied with Nottingham

SEVEN out of 10 Nottingham people say they are satisfied with the city as a place to live, according to a Government survey.

However, Nottingham citizens are less enthusiastic than others in the county, and across the country, about where they live.

In Notts, the East Midlands and England as a whole, eight of 10 expressed satisfaction.

The new poll, known as the Place Survey, was published by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The purpose of the postal survey is to provide a measure of how effective public services are within local authority areas and people's perception of life in their locality.

It asked questions about specific services, including bin collections, recycling, leisure facilities, plus council performance as a whole.

The survey also asked people about how connected they feel to their neighbourhood, whether they feel they can influence decisions, if anti-social behaviour is a problem and how well the police and councils are dealing with it.

In Nottingham, 30% of residents feel the city council offers value for money, compared to 38% of Notts residents who think the county council is good value. Nationally, the figure is 33%.

Residents are more satisfied with how the councils "run things".

Some 47% of people in Nottingham said they were satisfied, compared with 45% nationwide.

This is a surprisingly good result for the city given that the Audit Commission places the performance of the city council in the bottom 20%of councils nationwide.

Some 48% of respondents were satisfied with the county council's performance.

Jane Todd, chief executive of Nottingham City Council, said: "I am delighted that 69% of Nottingham residents are satisfied with their local area as a place to live. It is clear that residents are happy with many of our services, such as refuse collection, our libraries and parks.

"Perhaps we need to communicate better to residents that it is the council which provides the very services they like and appreciate."

The information gathered through the Place Survey will be used to measure the performance of public services in the city, county and districts.

Increasingly, public services are judged collectively. The Government's rationale is that a resident's perception of their local area comes from the collective effort of public authorities.

The health and wellbeing of a population is influenced by specialist health services but also the availability and quality of parks and leisure centres, and even perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour, for example.

Coun Jon Collins (pictured), leader of Nottingham City Council and chairman of One Nottingham – the local strategic partnership – said: "This new survey does not measure residents' satisfaction with council services alone but importantly also asks about services provided by all the public services within a local area.

"I am particularly encouraged to see that 73% of residents agree that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together, and that 72% of residents feel they have been treated with respect and consideration by their local public services.

"Only by continuing to work constructively and effectively with all our partner organisations will we be able to deliver excellent services worthy of the people of Nottingham."