Hertsmere residents feel safe

More than 90% of Hertsmere residents feel safe about their local area as a place to live.

That’s the overwhelming message from a survey of more than 1000 residents who have given us their views on a range of issues.

Members of Hertsmere Panel, volunteers from across the borough who have agreed to take part in surveys about the council, have told us what they think about what needs improving in the environment, recycling, crime and disorder and how they feel about contacting us.

Questionnaires were issued at the start of this year by independent research company Ipsos MORI.
Initial draft findings are currently being analysed but early indications show that:

• 92% of respondents said they felt fairly or very safe about their local area as a place to live
• 92% of respondents knew about additional bin collections
• 70% of people felt that the scheme had encouraged them to recycle more
• The number of people who now recycle items such as plastic bottles has more than doubled
• 74% feel the scheme has given them more opportunities to recycle
• Collection and disposal of domestic waste; street cleaning and recycling are the top three local environmental issues that residents feel are most important to them.

Cllr John Graham, Leader of the Council, said: "We are keen to get views from our residents about what is important to them so that we can ensure we are focusing in the right areas. This survey asked questions around three specific areas - the impact of the ABC scheme, crime and the fear of crime and making contact with the council.

"The initial results are very encouraging but we must not be complacent and once the report is finalised we will be looking more closely at the findings to understand exactly what the results mean and how we can improve further."

The survey also asked a number of questions around crime and disorder issues. Residents felt that the council should focus on providing additional Police Community Support Officers; issuing fixed penalty notices and increasing CCTV to help tackle crime and disorder issues. 92% of respondents said they felt fairly or very safe about their local area as a place to live and 77% had heard of PCSOs.

Contact with the council was also scrutinised with the majority of people using the phone to contact us, followed by a personal visit and then email. Of those who had contacted us about a complaint, 63% said the staff were helpful. In relation to a problem 69% of respondents said staff were helpful; and when asked about contact with an enquiry, 79% said staff were helpful.

We also asked panel members about our website and how useful it was, with the majority of respondents (66%) agreeing they felt it was easy to use. Respondents mainly use the website to find out general council information, but only one per cent of respondents had used the website to watch meetings being broadcast live.

The results of the independent survey will now be analysed more closely and the results used to help shape and focus the work of the council.