2006 quality of life survey
Background
The council provides a wide range of services, including waste collection, recycling, street cleansing and parks and open spaces and we know that the performance of these services can affect the quality of life of the residents of Liverpool. This survey was used to discover the level of satisfaction with these services.
Questionnaires were sent out to 5,000 randomly selected residents during January and February 2006. 2,010 were returned.
Summary of results
Overall satisfaction
- Just over half of the people surveyed were satisfied with the way the council provides services, slightly less than in 2005.
- Just over half also felt that the council keeps residents either very or fairly well informed about the services and benefits it provides.
- People were most satisfied with the household waste collection service, the waste reception site and doorstep recycling collection. They were least satisfied with road and pavement repairs and street-based services.
- 51% of people felt that there has been no change in the way the council runs things over the last 3 years, 34% felt that things had got better and 14% felt that things had got worse.
The local area
- The majority of people were satisfied with their local areas as a place to live.
- People felt that the council should prioritise levels of crime, clean streets, activities for teenagers and affordable, decent housing to improve residents' lives.
- Areas where it was felt there could be improvement included, road and pavement repairs, levels of traffic congestion and facilities for young children. Over the last three years, people felt that the majority of these factors had stayed the same.
- The factors that were most quoted as having improved included, shopping, clean streets, public transport, health services and education facilities.
- The factors quoted as having deteriorated include, the levels of crime and traffic congestion and the availability of affordable, decent housing.
- People were asked to state the extent to which a range of anti-social behaviours were felt to be a problem in their local areas. The results were similar to those in 2005, although racial attacks and sleeping rough were high-lighted as problems.
Environmental services
The majority of people were satisfied with:
- land being kept free of litter and refuse (58%)
- the household waste collection service (90%)
- recycling facilities (67%)
- the local tip (84%)
- the parks and open spaces service (61%).
However, levels of satisfaction with the doorstep recycling collection service did drop slightly from last year.
Highways services
- Just over half of people were satisfied with street based services
- The greatest levels of satisfaction were expressed with street-lighting and the sweeping of main roads.
- The highest levels of dissatisfaction were expressed with the quality of environmental enforcement issues and the removal of graffiti and fly-posting
- 42% of people were satisfied with the road and pavement repairs service and 37% were dissatisfied. The greatest levels of dissatisfaction were expressed with prompt repairs to potholes.
Complaints handling
- One in five people said that they had contacted the council with a complaint during the past 12 months. The main areas of complaint were, street services, litter, fly-tipping, abandoned cars and house or property repairs.
- Most of the complaints were directed to the Liverpool Direct contact centre and to Environmental Services.
- 55% of people were dissatisfied with the way their complaint was handled and 36% were satisfied.
Community involvement
- 28% of people felt that they could influence decisions about their local area and, 40% felt that they could not.
- A quarter of people said that they had carried out voluntary work for an organisation in the last 12 months.
- Approximately two-thirds of people felt their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds can get on together and is where residents respect ethnic differences between people.
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on the survey
For more information about this survey please contact Annmarie Flynn, Regeneration portfolio:
Tel: 0151 233 6838
Email: annmarie.flynn@liverpool.gov.uk