Citizen Survey 2022

What is the Citizens' survey?

In 2022, West Lancashire Borough Council undertook a Citizen Survey of residents, covering the topics of ‘Your Local Area’, ‘Local Services’, ‘Community Safety’, and ‘Interaction with the Council’. 

The survey was issued by post to 5,500 households in May 2022 with an option to be completed digitally and the survey closed in July 2022.

In total 1104 questionnaires were returned, giving an overall response rate of 20% which is a slight reduction on the last full Citizen Survey undertaken in 2019.

What were the key findings?

Some of the main findings in relation to satisfaction, along with comparisons to the 2019 results, are set out below.  Overall, the results show an improved position on 2019 feedback and whilst we recognise that the response is positive, we also recognise that there is room for improvement and the statistics will help us assign our resource appropriately.

Thinking about their local area:

78% of respondents are satisfied with their local area as a place to live, an improvement of 9% and more than half of residents surveyed said they were satisfied with the way the Council runs things.

Given the financial challenges the Council has seen a 9% increase in satisfaction around the Council providing value for money.

68% of people feel that they belong to their local area, an increase of 3% and a strong foundation to grow on.

59% of people agree that the local area is a place where people from different ethnic backgrounds get on well together, a significant increase o 20% since 2019.

In respect to household domestic waste and recycling collections.  Most respondents expressed satisfaction at 86% which is a 1% increase since 2019.

49% of residents are satisfied with the cleanliness o their streets, a slight reduction from the 2019 level of satisfaction of 52%.  However, there was a marked increase of 7% in the satisfaction of parks and open spaces returning a satisfaction rate of 56% this year.

The most convenient way for residents to interact with the Council is to use the website to find information and self-serve.  The survey reported back a usage of 71%, which is an increase from 65% in 2019.  In addition, to apply to, or pay for a service online, or report a fault, has increase to 57% from 51% in 2019.

Most of the respondents state that they felt safe during the day and two thirds of respondents felt safe at night-time – small % increases since 2019.

Overall, 70% agreed that West Lancashire is a safe and secure place to live.

What next?

The data has provided some invaluable insight and provides the Council with clear indications where citizens would like to see improvements.  We will share with all relevant stakeholders to develop the new council plan which will commence in January 2023.  We will also share with relevant partners to inform future delivery.

We will share the data with Senior Managers through a Task and Finish Group which will meet in January 2023 so we can develop an action plan to identify and progress key outcomes to improve customer satisfaction with the services provided by the Council and its partner agencies.

A link to the full report can be found by clicking here.