10:27am Friday 10th July 2009
By Alex Lewis
THE people of St Albans have given their city a resounding thumbs-up in a survey – but they are less happy with the district council that carried it out.
Results from a questionnaire sent to 4,500 residents show 90 per cent of residents are satisfied with the area as a place to live, the highest score in Hertfordshire and well above the national average of 80 per cent.
But satisfaction with the district council is less impressive – below the national average at 42 per cent while only 29 per cent say the authority provides value for money, against a national average of 33 per cent.
Council leader Robert Donald said: “I am delighted that so many of our residents enjoy our district. It’s a terrific place to live and the survey shows both that the quality of life here is very good indeed and that our diverse community is very well integrated. However, we still need to improve further our communication with the public to demonstrate better the good work the council is doing to provide residents with high quality services, to protect our great heritage and to provide value for money for our council tax payers.
“The Audit Commission’s comprehensive performance assessment, published more recently in 2009, recognises the council as ‘good’, performing well and providing value for money services to its customers. Since the survey was carried out, the council has frozen council tax this year and has achieved efficiency savings of £1.4 million.”
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