Survey slams trust in council

A "DAMNING" survey has revealed less than half of residents are satisfied with Doncaster Council services and little more than a third trust the authority.

The independent statistics from Ipsos MORI show only 45 per cent of residents are satisfied with services overall, which the experts describe as a significant reduction from a similar survey three years earlier. It places the borough in the bottom quarter of ratings nationally.

But the survey also revealed only 38 per cent saw the authority as being trustworthy and 38 per cent also regarded the council as providing good value for money.

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More than a quarter of residents, 28 per cent, have complained about council services in the past year, an increase from 18 per cent in 2003, and just 29 per cent of those were happy with the way the complaint was handled.

And only 26 per cent of residents felt they could influence council decisions.

The statistics, which were unveiled to the borough's Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee, have left senior councillors worried.

Coun Martin Williams, leader of the Community Group on the authority, said: "My view is this is a damning indictment of the council at the moment. These figures have to be improved.

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"People judge us by front line services. This shows they need to be funded better and I don't think money is being used wisely. Money needs to be going on front line services like getting the grass cut. I think people are doing their best, but if the money isn't there, then they will struggle."

His concern was mirrored by Coun Garth Oxby, leader of the Alliance of Independent Members.

He said: "The one thing that occurs to me is that there are more people dissatisfied than there are people who vote at the local elections.

"I think there is a shortage of funding. They are cutting budgets by 6 million. I've made my views clear to the managing director and that is that we should have less emphasis on capital projects and more on services. They say capital projects are not costing us anything, but we sold off assets that brought in rents."

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Coun Ray Bartlett, Conservative chairman of the council's economy and enterprise overview and scrutiny committee, added: "I think no-one can be satisfied with this. We have all got to work together to improve the situation."

He said he was not surprised that the figures also showed a significant drop in satisfaction with bin collections, from 90 per cent to 80 per cent. The council recently brought in alternate collections with rubbish collected every two weeks and green bins collected during weeks in between.

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee has asked for more details of the concerns.

The official Doncaster Council report on the survey, by performance and improvement officer Iain Thompson, has described it as generally positive, with 71 per cent of indicators showing improved results, compared to 21 per cent getting worse.

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He said: "The results from the 2006/07 satisfaction surveys present a generally positive picture for the authority and its work. High levels of satisfaction have been reported in a number of areas, in particular with our benefits and libraries services.

"However it is also clear that work will need to take place to improve satisfaction levels in other areas, such as complaint handling and waste collection.

"Furthermore, the reduction in overall satisfaction with the authority also gives cause for concern."

The authority's strategic director Peter Dale said today: "It is pleasing to note that many of our Best Value Performance Indicators have improved since the last survey and that we are now performing better in 71 per cent of them than we did in 2003/04, with our libraries and our benefits service particularly well rated.

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"However, we are always looking for improvements and recognise that there is a more work to be done in a number of key areas. We are currently in the process of addressing these."

The official Doncaster Council report on the survey, by performance and improvement officer Iain Thompson, has described it as generally positive, with 71 per cent of indicators showing improved results, compared to 21 per cent getting worse.

He said: "The results from the 2006/07 satisfaction surveys present a generally positive picture for the authority and its work. High levels of satisfaction have been reported in a number of areas, in particular with our benefits and libraries services.

"However it is also clear that work will need to take place to improve satisfaction levels in other areas, such as complaint handling and waste collection.''

The authority's strategic director Peter Dale said today: "We are always lookimg for improvements and recognise that there is more work to be done in a number of areas.''