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AN OVERWHELMING 97.8 percent of residents feel the Island is a good place to live according to a comprehensive survey carried out by the Isle of Wight Council.
The fourth annual residents' survey also revealed the Island remained a good place to take a holiday with 91.4 per cent agreeing. Both emphatic approval ratings are up from the previous year's comparative figures of (93 per cent and 88 per cent respectively).
The survey was carried out late last year by an independent research company who conducted 1,106 telephone interviews gathering views on the Island and the council and its services.
The views expressed will help the council set its spending priorities for the following year and consequently, the results have helped formulate the 2010/11 budget proposals due to be discussed in the coming weeks.
The 2009 study was the first annual such survey carried out since the recession and while the downturn clearly did not cause a dip in people's views on living here overall there was a fall in the percentage of people who felt the Island was a good place to work - from 52 per cent in 2008 to 47.6 per cent in 2009. Similarly there was a fall in those thinking the Island was a good place to invest from 56 per cent in 2008 to 48.7 per cent.
As for council services, there was broad – and in some cases emphatic – satisfaction.
Over 96 per cent were satisfied with pre-schools (including those privately run) nearly 95 per cent were satisfied with refuse collection, 94.8 with libraries, 92.3 with beaches, 92.2 with community recycling bins, 91.9 with leisure and sport facilities, 91.7 with parks and open spaces and 90 per cent with museums theatres and arts.
Areas of less satisfaction were road maintenance (26.9 per cent satisfied), pavement maintenance (47 per cent satisfied), planning decisions (54.8 satisfied) and traffic control/safety (59.8 satisfied).
As regards the council as a whole, nearly 42 per cent agreed the council gave good value for money – up nearly three per cent on 2008, 36.2 percent felt the council ran the Island well – an increased satisfaction of 1.2 per cent during the year and 45 percent agreed the council was improving the Island, very slightly up from the previous year's finding.
However there was a fall in the number of people who would speak highly of the council whether asked or not (from 20 percent to 18.4 per cent) and a corresponding rise in those who would be critical without being asked (from 39 per cent in 2008 to 44.7 in 2009).
Questions were also asked about where the public get information. In terms of local media, both the IW County Press and IW Radio were clear frontrunners as most popular print and radio media. The majority said they did not use local websites as a source of information but those who did favoured the council's iwight.com (21.9 per cent), followed by the IW County Press and IW Radio sites. Nearly 85 per cent of residents said they found the council's One Island community magazine informative - up from 77 per cent in 2008.
Cllr David Pugh IW Council leader said that once again the survey had confirmed the popularity of the Island as a place to live.
"I would be very surprised if there was any other location in the UK where residents were so united in their approval of the place in which they live.
"As far as the council is concerned while we are pleased so many of our services are valued by residents, we must also acknowledge there are areas upon which we need to improve.
"I am pleased to say that in those areas there are plans to bring about the necessary improvements through our projects such as schools re-organisation and the Highways PFI.
"It is also clear from the survey that people want to be engaged in local decision making so we will continue to look at new ways in which residents can be consulted so they feel very much part of the decision making processes."
Notes to editors:
For the full survey visit iwight.com from 0900 29 Jan.
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