Residents speak out.

Residents in Stratford district are increasingly happy with Council services and believe it is a harmonious place to live.

The results come from a two-yearly Resident's Survey which Stratford-on-Avon District Council undertook at the end of 2010.  It looked at people's views, perceptions and experiences of their area and asked about the quality of services the District Council provides.  Almost 1,900 district residents responded to the survey. 

Nine out of ten people in Stratford district were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, and 85% of people believed that people from different backgrounds get on well together.

Stratford district residents are increasingly more likely to feel they can influence decisions that affect their local area. 

Participation in regular volunteering has fallen from a third of people in 2008 to a quarter in 2010. 

Residents also feel that compared with two years ago the problem of anti-social behaviour in the district has lessened, particularly rubbish or litter lying around and vandalism or graffiti.  96% of residents feel safe during the day and 70% feel safe when outside after dark.

Of the services provided by the District Council, satisfaction rates have gone up in the last two years for:

• street cleaning (up 12 points to 78%),
• doorstep recycling (up 9 points to 87%), 
• refuse collection (up 9 points to 90%) and 
• satisfaction with parks and open spaces and sports facilities has also risen. 
• Overall satisfaction with the way Stratford District Council runs things has increased from 45% in 2008 to 57% in 2010.

Residents stress the two main things in making somewhere a good place to live is a low level of crime and good health services.  The main areas that residents felt needed improving were activities for teenagers, road and pavement repairs, and the level of traffic congestion.

Leader of the Council, Stephen Gray said: “It is good news that the District Council has been making progress with improved services and that this is appreciated by residents. We know that we must reduce costs next year but we are confident that residents will still benefit from high quality provision that they are satisfied with. This survey will be repeated at the end of next year and we will all want to see that residents continue to be happy with the Council's performance." 

• The survey was carried out during November to December 2010; the results are based on 1,877 completed replies to the survey, a response rate of 38%.
• The Residents Survey has replaced the Place Survey the once statutory survey for the Government which has now been scrapped. 
• The Council will carry out this survey every two years.
• The survey was conducted via postal self-completion questionnaires which included a reminder mailing.
• Weighting to reflect the profile of the Districts' population has been applied to all survey results.