The initial findings of a survey with New Forest residents have been released by New Forest District Council, and Cabinet have discussed the results at their meeting on 1st February 2023.

The survey asked residents for their views on a range of topics such as climate and the environment, living in the area, safety, and access to council services.

The survey shows strong performance for the authority against national benchmarks, along with some areas for improvement identified.

Cllr Jill Cleary, Conservative Leader, said, "As we approach the district council elections in May, I am reassured to see that our residents value our services and that we are performing well in many areas.

"We are committed to listening to our communities and we recognise that there are areas where we can improve, so we will be using the feedback to make our services even better.

"Further analysis of the data will happen before we can fully understand what the survey is telling us, but our focus will be on affordable housing, increased recycling, caring for the environment, and keeping the area clean and safe. And we continue to prioritise and protect what people most value about the area and our council services."

These results are really encouraging and hopefully readers will agree it's great to see that residents are satisfied with so many of the services NFDC provide. Teams at NFDC work really hard to improve the lives of local residents and truly care about the work they do. This survey tells the Council the priorities that they need to focus on for residents and also how people like to work and do business. This will help NFDC shape their delivery priorities and transformation programme for the future.

The council would like to thank all those who participated in the survey for their valuable input, and remind all residents that feedback can be given at any time in a variety of ways:

• contact customer services 
• give us your feedback, comments and complaints
• message us on social media
• contact your councillor
• sign up to receive residents emails and hear about other consultations to take part in

The report with initial results can be seen at https://newforest.gov.uk/residentssurvey

Headline findings of the survey include:

• 96% of residents feel very or fairly safe in their local area in the day, and 73% after dark
• 93% of respondents are satisfied with the area as a place to live
• 89% feel their local area is a place where people get on well together
• 82% of people who contacted us about an inquiry or problem found it easy
• 93% use the internet (non-work use)
• 75% feel worried about the impact of climate change
• 66% agree that we could do more to encourage households to recycle more
• 78% are satisfied with the way we run things
• 66% of respondents feel that the council keeps residents well-informed about the services it provides
• 74% trust us a great deal or fair amount

Image credit: pch.vector on Freepik