Liverpool City Council - 2007 quality of life survey

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Monday 1 December 2008

2007 quality of life survey

Background

The council provides a wide range of services including street based services, parks and open spaces and road and pavement repairs; other services are provided locally by public organisations such as the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Merseyside Police and the Liverpool Primary Care Trust.

We know that the performance of these services can affect the quality of life of the residents of Liverpool, and an annual survey is used to discover the level of satisfaction with these services.

This survey measured satisfaction levels across the city's five neighbourhood areas and included some of the indicators that were contained in the 2006 quality of life survey, so that the results from the two surveys could be compared.   

The city's five neighbourhood management areas are:

• Alt Valley.

• City and North.

• Eastern Link.

• South Central.

• South Liverpool.

Questionnaires were sent out to 5,000 randomly selected residents across the five neighbourhood areas during March and April 2007.  1,239 were returned.

Summary of the results.

Local services:

• 63% of people surveyed were satisfied with the way local services are delivered, the same percentage of people expressed satisfaction with the way the council delivers services.

• 85% of people were satisfied with fire services and 70% with the delivery of local health services.

• 57% were satisfied with services delivered by the Police and 61% satisfied with local public transport.

• People with the lowest levels of satisfaction with local services included, those under age 30, people in work, black and minority ethnic residents and those who do not consider themselves to be disabled.

• More people living in South Liverpool were satisfied with local services overall (71%); levels of dissatisfaction with local services overall were highest amongst residents in Alt Valley (16%).

Community cohesion and volunteering:

• 53% of people agreed that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together, a fall from 60% in the previous year's survey. 26% of residents in Alt Valley disagreed with this statement, 13% disagreed in South Central.

• 51% of people agreed that their local area is a place where people respect ethnic differences, down from 57% in the previous survey. There were differences across neighbourhood areas in response to this question, however, those most likely to agree were young people and black and minority ethnic residents.

• 40% of people said that they had worked voluntarily for a relative. 36% said they had worked voluntarily for a group; this figure was up by 12% on the previous survey.

• More people in South Central have worked voluntarily for a relative, a group or someone who is not a relative than in other neighbourhood areas. Volunteering for relatives and people who aren't relatives was lowest among people in City and North. 
   

Parks and open spaces:

• People were asked to express their satisfaction with a range of aspects of parks and open spaces services; the highest level of satisfaction was expressed with 'access to nature' (67%), the lowest was with 'allotment provision' (34%).

• Aspects of parks and open spaces where levels of satisfaction had improved since the previous survey were 'provision of children's play facilities' and 'allotment provision'.

• The highest level of dissatisfaction (44%) was expressed with 'safe use of parks'.  The greatest fall in dissatisfaction since the previous survey was expressed with 'provision of information about parks and open spaces'.

• For all aspects of parks services the highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by people living in South Liverpool (77%) and South Central (64%); the lowest levels of satisfaction were expressed by people living in Alt Valley (44%) and City and North (46%).

Street based services:

• The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed with 'provision of street lighting' (71%), 'maintenance of street lighting' (70%) and 'sweeping of main roads' (70%).

• The greatest levels of dissatisfaction were with 'removal of graffiti' (39%), 'environmental enforcement' (39%) and 'removal of dumped rubbish' (38%).

• Levels of satisfaction with street based services overall were highest in Alt Valley (55%) and lowest in South Central (45%).

• Priorities for improving street based services were 'removal of dumped rubbish' and 'sweeping local streets'.  Aspects that were considered not be priorities were 'information about street based services', 'education and promotion' and environmental enforcement'.

Road and pavement repairs:

• Satisfaction with all but one of the 7 aspects of service measured fell since the previous survey.  'Ease of reporting faults' was up to 43% from 41% in the previous survey. The greatest fall in satisfaction was with 'standard of repairs when complete', which fell from 53% in 2006 to 44%.

• The highest level of satisfaction was with 'maintaining roads in good condition' (54%), the lowest level of satisfaction was with 'prompt repairs to potholes' (21%).

• People in Alt Valley and South Central neighbourhoods expressed the lowest levels of satisfaction with road and pavement repairs.

• People felt that priorities for improvement were: 'maintaining local streets in good condition' (71%), 'prompt repairs to potholes' (61%) and 'maintaining footpaths' (56%).

Read the complete report on the survey.

For more information about this survey, please contact:

Lesley Thompson, Community Services portfolio:
Tel: 0151 233 6309
Email: lesley.thompson@liverpool.gov.uk