Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Under a third of people feel they can influence local decision making
Just 29% of people feel they can influence decisions in their local area, according to data released by the Government today.
Although just 45% of the population are satisfied with the way their council runs services, 80% are satisfied with their local area as a place to live, according to the Place Survey, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
A third of people felt their council provided value for money and only 14% had been involved in local decision making in the past twelve months.
The key points:
About your local area
* 80 per cent of the population were satisfied with their local area as a place to live
* 59 per cent felt they belong to their immediate neighbourhood
Your local public services
* 33 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that their local council provided value for money
* 45 per cent were, taking everything into account, satisfied with the way their local council runs things
Awareness of civil protection arrangements in local area
* 15 per cent of the population said that they were very well or fairly well informed about what to do in the event of a large-scale emergency e.g. flooding or human pandemic flu
Local decision-making
* 29 per cent felt they could influence decisions in their local area
Helping out
* 23 per cent had participated in formal volunteering at least once a month in the last twelve months
Getting involved
* In the last 12 months, 14 per cent of the population had been involved in local decision-making (for example, being a member of a committee or groups relating to local services, education or standing as a local councillor)
Respect and consideration
* 31 per cent of the population felt that there were problems with people in their local area not treating one another with respect and consideration
* 72 per cent felt that they were treated with respect and consideration by local services
* 76 per cent felt that people from different backgrounds got on well together in their local area
Community Safety
* 29 per cent felt that drunk or rowdy behaviour was a problem in their area; for drug use or drug dealing the figure is 31 per cent
* 25 per cent felt that police and other local public services sought local people's views on community safety issues; and 26 per cent felt that these bodies were successfully dealing with these problems
More here
Although just 45% of the population are satisfied with the way their council runs services, 80% are satisfied with their local area as a place to live, according to the Place Survey, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
A third of people felt their council provided value for money and only 14% had been involved in local decision making in the past twelve months.
The key points:
About your local area
* 80 per cent of the population were satisfied with their local area as a place to live
* 59 per cent felt they belong to their immediate neighbourhood
Your local public services
* 33 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that their local council provided value for money
* 45 per cent were, taking everything into account, satisfied with the way their local council runs things
Awareness of civil protection arrangements in local area
* 15 per cent of the population said that they were very well or fairly well informed about what to do in the event of a large-scale emergency e.g. flooding or human pandemic flu
Local decision-making
* 29 per cent felt they could influence decisions in their local area
Helping out
* 23 per cent had participated in formal volunteering at least once a month in the last twelve months
Getting involved
* In the last 12 months, 14 per cent of the population had been involved in local decision-making (for example, being a member of a committee or groups relating to local services, education or standing as a local councillor)
Respect and consideration
* 31 per cent of the population felt that there were problems with people in their local area not treating one another with respect and consideration
* 72 per cent felt that they were treated with respect and consideration by local services
* 76 per cent felt that people from different backgrounds got on well together in their local area
Community Safety
* 29 per cent felt that drunk or rowdy behaviour was a problem in their area; for drug use or drug dealing the figure is 31 per cent
* 25 per cent felt that police and other local public services sought local people's views on community safety issues; and 26 per cent felt that these bodies were successfully dealing with these problems
More here
Tags for Forum Posts: place survey
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Not very comfortable reading.
Turn the statements round :-
85% of the population said they were not very well informed about what to do in the event of a large- scale emergency
71% felt they could not influence decisions in their local area
75% felt that police and other local public services did not seek local people's views on community safety issues
Statistics, EH ? :-)
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Chicken and egg if it is.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Pack on
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A small, but telling, example of whether people feel they can have some influence is when it comes to reporting rubbish, graffiti etc. I find it very common to meet people who (a) think there's far too much of it about, but (b) have never thought of reporting any particular incident for clearing up. It's not that they are lazy, or think the council is incompetent, or similar reasons - but rather it's just never occurred to them that they personally might be able to do something about it.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Mark, I partly agree. And as well as endlessly reporting dumping and a range of other local problems, I encourage people to use the Council's website and offline numbers to report things themselves.
But there are a range of reasons people don't do so. One is that it still takes a bit of effort. For instance, if a streetlight is out, there's a freephone number (0500-236-458 and usually a unique metal ID on the column. But are you going to stop your car to jot down the number? Then make a call? Perhaps - if it's outside your home!
Another reason is that people have reported stuff - but given up. E.g. they see that Haringey Enterprise are pretty quick to clear fly-tipping. But also realise that a minority of people will soon re-dump the street with new garbage. The toughest challenge is not to get dumping reported and cleared as quickly as possible. But to persuade more of the casual tippers to stop.
Have a look at Liz's short photostory here.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Have to agree with Alan that the satisfaction of getting local problems of environmental crime sorted out is soon tempered with a sort of weariness that despite reporting as much as you can, joining the community volunteer programme, going to residents association meetings (guess I'm one of the 14% getting involved), the problem never seems to go away because root causes are not tackled and no one seems interested in real neighbourhood participation.
We had a real victory here in securing a consultation on the future of Harringay but that required a lot of work from Hugh and the power of this website to push for it...and there is your problem.
It shouldn't take hours of your time and having to have to put up with petty politicking to get heard.
Too often people are excluded from much that goes on and see what passes for consultation for what it is, an exercise in ticking boxes and ratifying what has already been decided
Take that debacle that is our quarterly Area Assembly. The vast majority of people ignore it completely, those who go come away angry and disenchanted and yet that is what passes for citizen participation in this area.
Sorry but being able to get the rubbish moved from the pavement is small beer compared to the big things we'd like to be involved in: HMO control, conservation and place shaping, traffic issues, planning decisions...
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Agree with much of what you've both said. On the other hand, there's the satisfaction sometimes of seeing that an issue that was there for years has been cleared up and not recurred.
Overall, an intensive burst of reporting and rereporting can cause some probldems to largely die out - such as graffiti where people often get put off if they know their graffiti is going to get removed quickly time and time again.
Plenty of reasons for frustration too, but let's not forget there are also reasons to be happy and to persist :-)
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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A big part of this is whether people WANT to have an influence over their local council. If you look at the report, it's notable that the proportion who would like to be more involved in local decision making is, at 27%, more or less the same as the proportion who feel they could influence decisions (29%). Presumably the bulk of the remainder either don't care or feel that voting once every four years is enough for them? Or that their council is just doing a lovely job ...
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Also worth noting that the survey was based on separate postal surveys carried out by individual local authorities. They were given DCLG guidelines, but obviously not the best way of getting a completely consistent approach. Perhaps more importantly, the surveys were postal ones, which are fairly notorious in ending up with low response rates. The Haringey response rate (that is, the % of people who responded out of the total number sent the questionnaire) was under 30% .... So I'd be sceptical about taking the individual borough results very seriously.
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