Maidenhead & Windsor

Eight out of ten people in the Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough are satisfied with their local area as a place to live and believe that people from different backgrounds get on well together.

That's the headline result from the nationally-organised Place Survey, which looked at Windsor and Maidenhead residents' attitudes to the areas where they live and about the issues that matter most to them in their community.

Now the Windsor and Maidenhead council is keen to hear from even more local people who would like to contribute their views to help make services even better in the future.

Cllr David Burbage, council leader, said the Place Survey gave a helpful snapshot of residents' views but, given that it was conducted last November, it would be more interesting to find out if people still felt the same.

He said: "A lot has happened over the past nine months. We have been working hard to make council services even better and people in our community have been experiencing changes themselves, particularly in an increasingly harsh economic climate. That's why we need to update this information and we will be looking to carry out another survey across the borough in the autumn to ensure we have the most relevant information on which to base our plans for the year ahead."

The Place Survey of more than 1,300 residents revealed that the borough's refuse collection service topped the satisfaction poll at 88%, with parks and open spaces achieving 79%, doorstep recycling 77% and libraries 70%.

Some 60% of Windsor and Maidenhead respondents agreed local public services are working to make the area cleaner and greener, 55% to make the area a better place to live and more than 50% to make the area safer.

More than 50% said they were satisfied or fairly satisfied with the way the Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough runs things.

Residents said that the level of crime is the most important factor in making somewhere a good place to live and more than 90% agreed they felt safe in their local area during the day (around half felt safe at night).

The two things that respondents believed were most in need of improvement were traffic congestion and road/pavement repairs.

Windsor and Maidenhead Cllr Burbage said: "No matter how hard we work we must always strive to do even better. That's why we need residents themselves to get involved in helping us to plan for the future. We want to hear from people willing to spare some time to take part in our residents' panel. It doesn't take a lot of time but the value to the council and the local community is immeasurable."

Called ViewPoint, the panel is made up of 1,000 Windsor and Maidenhead residents who are asked to take part in surveys and focus groups to give their views about council policies and services. Anyone interested in learning more should contact Anne Dackombe on 01628 796410 or email anne.dackombe@rbwm.gov.uk

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead