Living in Lancashire wave 32
| Purpose | This wave of Living in Lancashire looked at people's views on contacting the council, community safety and communications from the council on the winter gritting service, the Heysham-M6 link and the council's budget proposal. |
|---|---|
| Subject |
Crime and community safety Budget and council priorities Communications Satisfaction with the council Road and pavement maintenance and repairs |
| Commissioned by | Corporate Research and Intelligence Team |
| Geographic area |
All of Lancashire |
|---|---|
| Method |
Questionnaire - online Questionnaire - postal |
| Consultation with |
Life in Lancashire panel |
| Date | 18/02/2011 - 25/03/2011 |
| Undertaken by | Corporate Research and Intelligence Team |
Results
| Number in sample | 3974 |
|---|---|
| Number of responses | 2742 |
| Response rate | 68% |
| Key findings | Communications - winter gritting service - Around half of respondents were satisfied with the winter gritting services on main roads across Lancashire this winter while around a third were dissatisfied. - Three quarters of respondents didn't feel informed about winter gritting services provided by the council. - Fewer than one in twenty respondents got their information on winter gritting services through county council channels. Communications - Heysham-M6 road link - Two fifths of respondents were already aware of the plans to build a road linking the Heysham and Morecambe peninsula to the M6 motorway while around three fifths were not already aware. - Less than a third of respondents know that the road link is now going ahead. - Two thirds of respondents think the plans for the Heysham-M6 link are a good idea. Communications - budget proposals - Three quarters of respondents weren't aware of the council's three-year budget proposal. - Of those respondents that were aware of the budget proposal, two fifths felt informed about the proposal while just over half felt uninformed. - Of the respondents that were aware of the budget proposal, half felt it would have a moderate or slight impact on their lives. A fifth felt it would have a significant impact. Community safety - Just over half of respondents agree that police and other local public services are successfully dealing with crime and anti-social behaviour in their local area. This is a considerable increase on the proportion that agreed when the question was asked last year. - Opinion is split on whether there is more or less crime in respondents' local areas than two years ago Customer service - The most common reason for contacting the council was to report an issue or problem followed by asking for information and asking for help or advice. - The most common way of contacting the council is by phone. - Just under half of respondents say their query or problem was resolved by the first person they discussed it with while two fifths say it wasn't. - Half of respondents say their query or problem was resolved eventually during their first call or visit. - Three quarters of respondents thought that it was easy to contact the county council and that they were treated with fairness and respect. Fewest people agreed that it was easy to speak to the person they needed. - Two thirds of respondents were satisfied with the service they received from Lancashire County Council. |
| Outcomes | Communications - winter gritting service The survey showed that many of you used non-county council sources to access information on winter gritting, in particular radio travel bulletins. In light of this, we are placing an even greater emphasis on using local radio to promote our messages and will be looking to promote our winter messages alongside their regular traffic and travel bulletins. There was also some interest in continuing to receive information on the gritting service through the county council's winter leaflet. We will be updating the leaflet, and increasing the distribution, for this year providing more information on what steps members of the public can take to prepare for the winter weather. Customer service As a result of your feedback, we have made our employees and managers aware of what you have told us. We did this to celebrate our successes, but also to identify how we can improve our customers' satisfaction. We are introducing a number of projects to improve our customer service including customer service training, working directly with services to improve their customer service and mystery shopping. Finally, we will repeat this survey on an annual basis to enable us to monitor our progress, so we can continue to learn and improve from your feedback. |
Project document(s)
Report(s)
Questionnaire(s)
Contact information
For more information about this research contact:
Melissa Sherliker
01772 535019
Email: haveyoursay@lancashire.gov.uk