Best Value Performance Plan 2002

Questionnaire Findings

A.    INTRODUCTION

Hampshire County Council published their Best Value Performance Plan in the Sixth issue of the Hampshire Now magazine.  In order to get an appreciation of what residents thought of the Plan, a short self-completion questionnaire card was included in the magazine (see Appendix 1).  898 residents returned the questionnaire and this report presents their responses to the questions asked.  (866 responses were received to a similar survey conducted in 2001.) A detailed tabulation of the findings cross-tabulated by each of the districts in the County and age of the respondents is presented in Appendix 2.

B.    MAIN FINDINGS

1.    Sample

The distribution of the sample by district is shown in Table 1 below.  Comparative data from the 2001 survey is also shown in the table.  From the Table it can be seen that in common with the survey conducted in 2001 a relatively high proportion of responses were received from the New Forest.

Table 1

Distribution of the Sample by District

District	2001	2002
	%	%
East Hants	7	11
Fareham	8	6
Basingstoke and Deane	12	9
Hart	5	6
Rushmoor	4	5
Gosport	3	3
Havant	8	14
Test Valley	6	5
New Forest	18	15
Winchester	9	11
Eastleigh	8	*
Not stated	12	14

2.    Age

The age profile of people returning the survey form is shown in Table 2 where it can be seen that there was a skew towards the older age groups with 68% of respondents being over the age of 55.

Table 2

Age Profile

Age	Total = 898
	%
16-24	1
25-34	4
35-44	9
45-54	16
55-64	23
65+	45
Not stated	2

3.    Opinion of the Supplement

90% of the 898 residents who returned the questionnaire said they had read the supplement.

68% of those who returned the questionnaire said it was the first time they had seen the supplement “Delivering Best Value”.

33% of those who returned the questionnaire felt something of importance had been missed from the supplement.  A summary of their responses is shown in Table 3.

Table 3

Summary of Perceived Omissions

Omission	Total = 296
	%
Quality and maintenance of services	10
Transport issues/timetables	7
Communication/facts/informing	7
Listening to the public	7
Community issues	6
Local police/crime prevention	6
Costs/efficiency	5
Recycling	4
Older community members	4
Housing/servicing of new housing	2
Health care	2
Conservation/wildlife	2
Inflation proof Council Tax	2
Sporting facilities	1
Social Services	1
Adult education	1
Abattoir in residential areas	*
Asylum seekers	*
Food hygiene	*
Debate benefits of public versus private	*
Pay for councillors	*
Job opportunities	*

58% of respondents felt that as a result of reading the supplement they had learned something about Hampshire County Council.

Table 4 shows how residents rated the presentation and design of the supplement.  From the table it can be seen that 70% of residents felt the presentation was either ‘very good’ and ‘good’.

Table 4

Opinion Regarding Presentation

Rating	Total = 898
	%
Very good	23
Good	47
Fair	18
Poor	7
Not stated	5

When asked if they thought local authorities worked well in partnership, 32% felt they did, 33% felt they did not and 35% said they did not know.

Finally, respondents were asked if they felt they could influence decisions made by the County Council. 20% felt they could, 63% felt they could not and 17% said they did not know.