Saturday, October 28, 2006

Town Close Survey Results

During the last few weeks we distributed personalised surveys to local people in Town Close. We enclosed freepost envelopes and the return rate was well over 25% - not bad for a party political survey. Here are the results (more or less) in full.

Take careful note of the voting intentions - as this survey was sent to people of all political sorts and none. All figures are percentages.

How would you vote in an election tomorrow?
Green Party 30
Conservative 27
Liberal Democrat 22
Labour 21

Are you in favour of Norwich going Unitary?
Yes 20
No 35
Don't Known 45

Are you satified with the state of your local park?
Yes 20
No 80

Do you think that council tax is...
Too High 72
Too Low 1
About Right 27

What should happen to the junction at the corner of Brazengate and Grove Road?
The no-entry sign should be abolished 45
The no-entry sign should be strongly enforced by the police 36
Don't Know 19

Are you concerned about parking in your area?
Yes 37
No 45

Would you like to see your area become a 20mph zone?
Yes 49
No 36

What is your view of the bus service in Norwich?
Good 26
Poor 26
(The rest do not regularly travel by bus)

Where are the local litter hotspots?
These all appeared several times: Tesco Express (Grove Road), Lakenham Way, Brazengate, Trafford Road, Unthank Road

Do you support a twin bin system for Norwich with waste one week and recycling the next?
Yes 10
No 81

I will let you decide which of those are worthy of note, but keep in mind that roughly two thirds of respondants would vote for a left-wing party and less than 30% are out-and-out Conservatives so you cannot say that the response group is biased.

I think the council should note the numbers of people not informed about unitary as a priority (we shall see if this is matched in other areas).

What do you think?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

On Unitary it suggests most of the public are ambivalent, or unsure if marginally against.

I found the Bus response interesting. I personally think Greens target First unfairly over their bus service. The service, whilst not magificent on the ground, is actually pretty fair.

The response on the twin bin system and council tax rates highlights the common public dilema and misunderstanding. "We want more for less". The popular political decision will be to leave an overserviced weekly collection and not make necessary reforms. Weekly collections are currently sucking money from introducing new collection services such as greenwaste and food waste collections. In reality a fortnightly twin bin system is likely to save costs and improve recycling. The proof of this is 80% of Norfolk are on the fortnightly twin bin system, with less complaints and higher recycling rates. This is the bullet to bite for Norwich. Weekly services do not increase recycling rates, providing sufficient recycling bin volume does. Small Green Boxes don't do this.

I think you missed out the most important issue that people face on the Mile Cross area. That of home crime (burglaries), vehicle crime, drugs and ASB. If one looks at the EEN weekly crime map..the Aylsham Rd/ Drayton Road corridors consistantly come out as the highest. This is a reality.

Also you do not survey issues of affordable or good quality housing in these areas, whether house purchases, the private rental sector and council HSA/ house provision.

Anonymous said...

Well something that jumps out at me is that at least 20 "greens" are not willing to do one of the simplest things to reduce waste which happens in many other parts of the country, including tory broadland, and have a fortnightly waste collection.

Middle-class self-righteous hypocrites.

Antony said...

Annon. - indeed and if I told you that the 10% who supported the idea weren't all Green voters it does show up a credibility gap between what their voters expect and what the party stands for.

I happy to know that one of my green-supporting neighbours was horrified at Cllr Lubbock's motion to council asking for a twin bin style system.

However if he is voting Green then he isn't voting LibDem!

Antony said...

Annon. - indeed and if I told you that the 10% who supported the idea weren't all Green voters it does show up a credibility gap between what their voters expect and what the party stands for.

I happy to know that one of my green-supporting neighbours was horrified at Cllr Lubbock's motion to council asking for a twin bin style system.

However if he is voting Green then he isn't voting LibDem!

Anonymous said...

Antony..the more the public look at the economics of the inadequate Green Box capcity and rollouts, they will understand the county twin bin standard in the long term solution. If people are dividing their waste up there is no sense for keeping a guilt edged weekly collection service. Like meat,two veg and gravy, it might be what many residents are used to and don't wish to change, but the economic/ cost/ greater recycling capacity are for the fortnightly twin bin system. The question is whether politicans follow the popularist but inefficient system or the right and more cost effective twin bin system.

Anonymous said...

Fortnightly collection of residual waste, unsupported by weekly food waste collections are going to lead to complaints. There's no doubt that these can be managed but you'll be shooting yourselves in the foot wrt to your overall recycling performance and resident perceptions regarding your objectives. By introducing separate food waste collections you'll find that captures of this material are maximised, that you can fairly present your motivations as being principally about recycling and that your long-term objectives will be significantly advanced. You will, of course, be securing a favourable LATS position and, I'm not sure of your allowance allocation without checking, might very well put yourselves in a position to sell LATS in the difficult 08/09. Collections of food waste not difficult either. Priula in northern Italy are quoting 24Euros per h/hold / annum and their collectors' wages are off the scale. Using similar methodology in the UK you should be able to offer a separate pass collection for around £12/13 / hhold. Still pricey I know, but whilst you're still 2-tier you should speak to the WDA about support for this. Various mechanisms have been agreed in Lancs, in Essex, in Surrey and in Somerset and this also plugs into Defra's partnership agenda making possibility of accessing other funding easier.

Also, the fact you've got such high declared support for the greens suggests to me that you're likely to achieve reasonable participation rates. Twin bin suggests mechanical sort. This means you pay a gate fee, depending on materials collected from £25 to £40 / tonne and forgo material sales revenue - also very significant. With high participation rates, this additional cost is generally unjustified from the PoV of the collection authority and is only to the benefit of the collection contractor / MRF operator. Not to say I don't recommend commingled - I do frequently - but predominantly in built up urban london and met boroughs where participation rates are low, engagement weak and space for sorting materials within the average house very restricted. In this case the additional cost is frequently justified - viz Western Riverside WDA which experience a 10% leap in tonnage captures. Otherwise careful. Regards - annon - from pb.com

Anonymous said...

Annon Agree with your analysis. Re Need for weekly 3 waste stream replacing weekly residual collection, which would be rescheduled fortnighty, as cleaner (without food) and more potential "rest waste" potential. There must be ways to get there.

Anonymous said...

All this recycling and waste talking from the council is just talk and no action. The Government/ Defra should be called into Norwich to sort things out because Councillors and Officers seem to be dancing round the waste issue, pontificating, prevaricating and doing next to squat. They are too politically nervous and haven't the stomach to tackle residents bins head on!