ONE BIG SURVEY AND ONE PARTICULARLY HAPPY CUSTOMER

Babergh District Councillors will get the chance next week to debate the results of no less than four surveys looking at what residents think of the Council.

The report going before Councillors on the Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Stewardship) on 29th August comprises general attitudes to Babergh and its work, plus residents’ detailed thoughts on three specific services: benefits, planning and Council tenants’ services.

According to Janice Rees, Babergh’s Policy & Communications Manager “these are very useful figures as they allow us to better understand where the public think we are improving and where we need to do more work. Overall, the more residents interact with Babergh, the happier they are with the services we provide”.

59% of those questioned were satisfied with the Council’s overall service, compared to 75% of those making a planning application, 84% with the benefits service and 89% of Council tenants.

Compared to a similar set of surveys four years ago, residents’ opinion of Babergh’s recycling services, management of its parks and other open spaces and local leisure facilities has improved. However, there has been a fall in the percentage of residents satisfied with the Council’s waste collection service.

One of the key areas for future efforts looks likely to be how Babergh handles complaints from residents. Although, there has been a small improvement over the last four years, Babergh acknowledges that with satisfaction levels at only 28% for complaint handling, this needs concerted action across the Council.

“The results of these surveys are particularly helpful and they will make a contribution to our new Corporate Plan which aims to set out Babergh’s service priorities for the next 10 years” explained Janice Rees.

The survey results are being distributed in the week that a former resident, unconnected with the surveys, gave a clear thumbs up to Babergh.

Mrs Girvan Hurst, who lived in Layham near Hadleigh before moving to Felixstowe said that “although I’ve moved out of Babergh to be in a larger property, I have nothing but praise for the Council. Every time I’ve dealt with them, their staff have been very efficient and very friendly. I will also miss the level of services I received, not least as regards their bin collection service. In my opinion, Babergh has to be one of the best councils there is!”

According to Helen Austin, Customer Services Team Leader “we are glad that Mrs Hurst thinks so highly of the services we provide. We aim to ensure that all residents form a similarly positive view as to how we treat them”.

The report into satisfaction levels will be considered by other Babergh committees as well and the Council aims to regularly report back how it is tackling the main areas identified for improvement.