Issue - meetings

To receive the results of the Residents Survey 2024/25.

Councillor P Davis, Cabinet Member for Communities and Civic Pride, provided Cabinet with an update on the results of the Residents Survey that was carried out, in-house, between 15 November 2024 and 31 January 2025, which shared the feedback from services in response to the findings, set out the Council’s next steps and put forward recommendations for conducting future Residents Surveys. 

It was reported that this Residents Survey had been conducted to gather residents’ views on the borough as a place to live and made this an opportunity to refresh the Council’s data and help shape future policy and service provision. It was noted that this also reflected the Council’s cooperative values and commitment to shaping services through continuous engagement with residents.

Councillor Davis said that this survey had been one of over 100 surveys, which had been undertaken over the past two years.  He said that, as a co-operative Council, it did not listen every few years but had ongoing dialogue with its residents.  He added that the previous survey, carried out in 2020, had included the printing and posting to every household in the borough, which had attracted response levels of less than 7% and that feedback did not appear as representative of Telford’s communities as it might have been. 

Councillor Davis said that, as a result, and to refine the Council’s approach to ensure the views of the broad and diverse range of residents, a random sample of 300 households per ward across the borough (9,600 addresses in total) had been invited to take part.  He said that 1,384 responses (14.4%) had been received, which had been in line with LGA expectations.  He added that, alongside this, a dedicated Young Persons Survey, which attracted 103 responses, had provided a valuable insight into the views of 11- to 18-year-olds across the borough. 

Councillor Davis said that the covering report set out a summary of the main findings, which focussed on keeping residents informed, satisfaction with the Council services and the area as a place to live.  He said it should be noted that the latest local survey had provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on services in every area where comparable LGA benchmarking was available, in every case outperforming the averages. 

Councillor Davis said that when thinking about Council services, two-thirds of respondents (66%) said they were satisfied with the way the Council ran its business, which compared very favourably with the LGA figure of 56%.  Councillor Davis said satisfaction levels were particularly high in respect of recycling and waste (c.88%) (well above the LGA average), and whilst satisfaction levels with highways was only 46%, this was still much stronger than the LGA benchmark of 30%.  On communications, he said that 77% of residents felt well informed of the services and benefits the Council provided (nationally, this figure was 47%).  He said that this information told the Council that its efforts to keep people updated whether through print, online or community channels were being recognised.

Councillor Davis said that when  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21