Conservatives refute administration claims that most people satisfied

Conservatives on Ealing Council say contrary to the Labour administration's interpretation, the latest Resident Survey shows a significant decrease in the level of satisfaction in key areas.

BMG research was commissioned to carry out the survey on behalf of the council at a cost of £38k.  The last such Survey was conducted in 2014.  A sample of 1,253 local people were interviewed face-to-face and asked a series of questions to find out what they thought about living in the borough and council services.  

The top reasons people gave for being satisfied with the area were the friendly people, quiet neighbourhoods and good access to public transport.  The top three reasons for dissatisfaction were rubbish and litter, crime and parking problems.  

Satisfaction with refuse collection is down 10%; satisfaction with street cleaning, down 26%, satisfaction with parks and open spaces, down 19%, satisfaction with leisure and sports facilities, down 27. Satisfaction with nursery, primary and secondary education, down respectively 10%, 9% and 7%.

Commenting on the survey, council chief executive, Paul Najsarek said: “Finding out what local people think about the local area and our services is invaluable and so I’m very grateful to everyone who took part.  

“It is great to see that people feel happy and well and like where they live and, on the whole, feel positively about the council. This is a great foundation on which the council and the community can work together to build an even better borough for the future.

“I’m particularly pleased that people support our Future Ealing approach that focuses services on those in greatest need. I remain confident that if we can help prevent problems and enable people to become more independent we will improve peoples’ lives and be better placed to manage the challenge of significantly reduced funding.

“There is lots of feedback on individual council services which we are reviewing very closely. We will continue to seek to improve satisfaction with services, especially those that have seen dips on the last survey as well as building on any improvements that have been recorded.'

However Cllr Gregory Stafford, Opposition Leader said, “The survey results clearly demonstrate what we have been saying all along.  Labour is providing a poor service to residents.  The level of residents’ satisfaction on universal services such as streets, education, leisure and culture have significantly dropped.

The most depressing indicators are that a quarter of residents believe the area is getting worse (litter and rubbish being the main cause) and the decline in the number of residents who are satisfied living in Ealing - down from the 83% satisfaction level under the Conservative Administration.   

Whilst Labour has always tried to blame its inferior performance on budget cuts, the Survey reveals that 59% of residents are unware of the Councils funding cuts and 76% are coping well with their household finances.

Judging from residents’ feedback, it’s clear that Labour needs to start acting more on residents’ concerns and less on increasing their enhanced Special Responsibility Allowances.''

The council’s cabinet will discuss the results of the survey at its cabinet meeting on Tuesday, 14 May 2019.  The report and full set of survey results is available at www.ealing.gov.uk

Report Can be found ( item 8 on agenda) here

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13 May 2019 (updated)