Stratford District Council to ask residents - your money, you decide

Researchers working on behalf of Stratford-on-Avon District Council are undertaking face to face interviews with residents about how they think the Council should spend its money.

An independent market research company called Research for Today will conduct more than 250 face-to-face interviews with residents from every council ward in the District.  The researchers will carry formal identification (which they are happy to have checked prior to any interviews) and an introductory letter from the District Council.

The methodology being used is known as SIMALTO (Simultaneous Multi Attribute Level Trade Off) and has been used by over 90 councils in the country.  It gives residents a real insight into the kind of difficult decisions the District Council has to make and allows them to decide where their own priorities lie based on real information.

People are given a set 'budget' (made up of points) to prioritise the services delivered by the District Council that they feel are most important to them.  The points are then converted into money which reflects the District Council's budget.  Residents can choose to spend their points on keeping things as they are, cutting back or investing in the service areas that matter most to them.

The results will be used as part of the process to set the District Council's 5 year budget. 

The District Council has also commissioned an on-line survey so that a greater number of residents can take part in the same exercise by visiting the District Council's website - www.stratford.gov.uk/budget.  The scenarios are exactly the same as those being undertaken in the face to face interviews.

There is also an opportunity to enter a prize draw to win £50 worth of shopping vouchers.

Councillor Stephen Gray, Leader says: "The aim of this exercise is to let the public have their say on where they think we should concentrate our spending over the next few years.  The Simalto methodology gives very reliable results which we can use to help protect the areas that are most important when we are considering next year's council budget."

Additional background information

A team of experienced researchers in this type of work will be in Stratford District during October.  It is anticipated in that time over 250 interviews will take place and importantly they will take place in early evenings and at weekends as well as the day.  A letter from Stratford DC is given to those agreeing to be interviewed to give legitimacy of the survey work.

Traditional face to face interviews take place in residents' homes and last approximately 40 to 45 minutes, with a representative sample selected to reflect the population and proportionately split by ward, age, and gender. 

As well as the Household Survey, residents are being invited to complete the same questionnaire online, councillors themselves will be able to complete it in a session before Full Council on October 18^th, and District Council staff who live in the district have been encouraged to give their views.

Simalto is where each attribute (a Council service) is then given a cost and the resident is required to make a 'trade-off' or compromise between attributes to improve and those to cut back on.  The cost of the attributes must be balanced to match either the original selection, meet a set budget, or allow a reduction.  The trade off shows which of the attributes are important and which can be sacrificed for improved service elsewhere simultaneously.  This is how the method gets its name - SIMALTO.  More importantly, it shows how much the resident is prepared to pay for the changes and how this might impact on their satisfaction.  A common complaint when consulting on the budget is that people don't have enough information to make realistic decisions.  Using this system they do.