City council: improving services, increasing satisfaction?

The annual survey also shows that 96% of residents are satisfied with Edinburgh as place to live and satisfaction with how the Council manages the city overall has increased to 74% from a low of 35% in 2009.

The public’s top priorities for improvement include roads maintenance, street cleaning and refuse collection, and tackling dog fouling.

In a sign of growing confidence in the economy, over half of respondents feel confident about their job prospects in Edinburgh, with those feeling ‘very confident’ more than doubling in a year.

Council Leader Cllr Andrew Burns said: “The top line figures continue to offer great encouragement and reassurance that, broadly speaking, residents believe we are managing their city well.

“What’s even more impressive is that this has been achieved against a backdrop of real pressure on public finances and the need to make efficiencies throughout the Council.

“Our recent budget clearly shows we have listened to residents, with a further £16m going into the budget for fixing potholes and pavements, as well as investment in other facilities and services that the public value.

“But we will, of course, make sure that we tackle those areas where the survey shows we need to do more. That’s essential for the people who live and work here, but also for maintaining our reputation as a world-class capital city.”

Deputy Council Leader Cllr Steve Cardownie added: “We know from the many awards that the city receives each year what visitors think of Edinburgh but what these results demonstrate is that residents agree; it’s a great place to live.

“It is particularly encouraging that they believe that our world-famous festivals make the city a better place to live and that they are attending ever more performances and events right here on their door step.

“We are ambitious for the city and there is much work yet to be done, so we simply need to continue delivering the pledges we made to Edinburgh residents and look for that to be reflected in future surveys.”

Key findings in the Edinburgh Peoples Survey 2013 include:

• Edinburgh continues to be highly regarded as a place to live with 96% expressing satisfaction, continuing a year-on-year increase since 2010
• Satisfaction with neighbourhoods as place to live has also stayed very high at 93%, up by 7% since 2008
• Satisfaction with nursery, primary and secondary schools reached its highest recorded levels
• Road maintenance continues to have a lower satisfaction score than other services (53%), staying about the same over the five year period. Satisfaction has reduced in refuse collection (to 75%) and recycling (to 80%)
• Satisfaction with library services remains very high at 93%, well above the long-term average of 87%
• Over three-quarters (77%) of residents felt Festivals made the city a better place to live, up 9% on last year, with almost two-thirds (64%) having attended a performance (up 7%)

More detailed analysis will be carried out to understand the reasons underlying the changes in satisfaction. The research will also be used by managers and staff to develop action plans for maintaining high performance and addressing areas for improvement.

The Edinburgh People Survey (EPS) is the Council’s annual citizen survey, measuring satisfaction with the Council and its services, identifying areas for improvement and gathering information about residents which is not available through other sources or at neighbourhood level.

The survey is undertaken through face-to-face interviews with around 5,000 residents each year, conducted in the street and door-to-door.

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