Satisfaction surveys show improvement with Council services


Residents' overall satisfaction with many of Sevenoaks District Council's services has improved according to the results of three recent surveys.

The surveys covered overall satisfaction with Council services as well as separate planning and benefits surveys. All the questions were set by Central Government as part of its three yearly Best Value User Satisfaction Surveys that all councils have to carry out.

The General survey took place between October 2003 and February 2004 and was sent to 2,400 residents.

Compared with the last survey in 2001, improvements were shown across the board in 12 comparable questions covering the refuse and recycling service. The key findings were:
- 97% were satisfied with the reliability of waste collection service, an increase of 1% from three years ago
- 91% were satisfied with the waste collection service overall, an increase of 3% from three years ago
- 89% were satisfied with local recycling facilities, an increase of 13% from three years ago

Those surveyed also said they were more satisfied with parks, open spaces and leisure facilities.

When asked if things had improved or become worse in the last three years:
- 14.2% said sports and leisure facilities had improved compared with 8.2% who said they had become worse
- 20.2% said the Council runs things better compared with 17% who said it runs things worse

Access to nature and sports and leisure facilities had improved in the last three years, according to the results, however, traffic congestion had become worse.

When asked what the Council's priorities should be, the response was traffic congestion, road and pavement repairs, shopping facilities, affordable housing, crime, public transport, leisure facilities and clean streets.

Satisfaction with the authority as a whole was 61% which compared favorably with the national average at 55%.


The Planning survey was sent to 433 residents and planning agents in October and November 2003.

Compared to a similar survey three years ago:
- 75.7% were satisfied with the service overall - an increase of 11.7%
- 65.6% said that they were given the correct advice - an increase of 3.8%
- 50.3% said that they were kept informed about the progress of their application - an decrease of 3.7%
- 54.7% said that the Council dealt promptly with their enquiries - an increase of 0.6%

Over the last three years, 20% said the advice had improved, 15.9% said the quality of information had improved and 22.8% said the speed at which the applications were dealt with had also improved.


The Benefits survey was sent to people who had used the service between August and November 2003 and again from January and April 2004. The results for this survey were more mixed.

Compared with three years ago:
76.8% were satisfied with the way they contact the benefits office a decrease of 3.2%
81.3% were satisfied with the experience of using the service an increase of 3.3%
67.1% were satisfied with the benefits telephone service a decrease of 5.9%
81.7% were satisfied with the service provided by staff a decrease of 0.3%
58.2% were satisfied with the claim forms an increase of 2.2%
57.1% said they were happy with the time taken to process the claim, a decrease of 7.9%

Overall 73.2% were satisfied with the benefits service (no comparable question was asked three years ago).

Cllr Peter Fleming, the Council's Cabinet Member with responsibility for consultation, says: "Overall these results are encouraging with both refuse and recycling and the planning service showing significant improvements. However there is scope to improve and over the coming months we will examine those areas where we could do better. We are also looking forward to working with our partners to address those issues outside the Council's control where residents have raised concerns."

The results were presented to the Council's Cabinet at last night's meeting (29 July 2004).