A major new survey of Cumbrians has provided a valuable snapshot of life in the county.
Findings from the Cumbria Quality of Life report have been revealed today to help build a picture of how people perceive their quality of life.
The report has been drawn up using information from the Big Cumbrian Survey, which has been funded by Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Strategic Partnership, and is a major indication of attitudes in the county. It is fully independent research carried out by the polling organisation Ipsos MORI, who sent the survey to 15,500 randomly selected households right across the county. Over 4,000 residents responded.
Key findings in the report include:
- 88% of Cumbrians are satisfied with the local area they live in, with over a third (34%) ‘very satisfied’. Only 8% of people say they are not satisfied with their local area in Cumbria.
- Cumbria is perceived as a relatively safe place to live - when asked whether they feel unsafe in their local area outside after dark, a fifth (21%) of people in the county said they did; this compares with national figures from the British Crime Survey showing that around three in ten people in the UK feel unsafe outside after dark.
- Anti-social behaviour issues are key concerns for Cumbria residents. Two issues in particular - teenagers hanging around on the streets and parents not taking responsibility for the behaviour of their children - are seen by one in five residents as a serious problem and by a further third as a minor problem.
- There is a strong sense of community involvement in the county. Two-thirds of Cumbrians feel they belong in their community and trust most people locally and a third say they have volunteered in the last 12 months - that compares with an average in England of 23% of people volunteering.
- Only one in five people feel they can have a personal influence over decisions that affect their area. Two in five would like to have more of a say in what the council does and the services it provides, which is around double the national average.
- Almost two in three people in Cumbria rate their health as having been good or very good in the past year - people living in Eden are most likely to report good health, those living in Barrow and Carlisle are least likely to do so.
Broadly speaking, residents in Cumbria think that the delivery of services in their area is good. Services which people rate highly include: libraries, parks and green spaces, fire and rescue services, hospitals and GPs. Services which people are most dissatisfied with include: the availability and quality of dentists, public toilets and the availability of suitable housing.
A list of residents’ priorities for improvement has also emerged from the report. They include:
- Upgraded provision for teenagers and young people.
- More affordable and good quality housing.
- Road and pavement repairs.
And the report also outlines what people perceive as the main environmental problems in their area. These include dog fouling (28% describe as a ‘serious problem’), poor condition of roads or footpaths (24%), litter (21%), cars blocking pavements (16%), vandalism and graffiti (11%) and noise pollution (9%).
The report helps build a clearer picture of some of the more disadvantaged areas in the county. Pockets of communities in Workington, Whitehaven and Barrow received particularly intensive mailshots so that a fuller picture of those areas could be built and improvement initiatives carefully mapped.
Neighbourhood Management Programmes have already been established to help improve people’s quality of life in these disadvantaged areas, although the report does reveal that there is still a gap between quality of life there compared with other parts of the county. Data from the report will be used to help set targets so that the ongoing improvement programme can be closely mapped and measured.
Overall, the report says that satisfaction with areas differs relatively little from district to district, although residents in Eden are more likely to be satisfied with the area and residents in Barrow less likely to be satisfied than those in the county as a whole. “This is as we would expect given the comparitive levels of affluence of these two districts,” says the Ipsos MORI report.
Councillor Elizabeth Mallinson, cabinet member responsible for organisational development, said: “The public sector spends more than one billion pounds of tax payers’ money in Cumbria every year - this survey is designed to help public bodies such as the county council, police and health services make the best use of that money. We need to make sure we continue to improve the quality of life of people in the county and use this information to adapt and develop our services to make sure they’re connecting with local people.”
Notes for editors
The full survey can be viewed online at: www.cumbria.gov.uk/consultation/2006qolsurvey.asp
Ipsos MORI sent out 15,500 questionnaires to a sample of household addresses that were randomly selected from the Postcode Address File (PAF), ensuring that all households had a chance of being selected to take part. Non-respondents were sent up to two reminder questionnaires. 4,026 responses were received, which represents a response rate of 26% - typical for a survey of this type. The fieldwork took place between 28th of July and 29th of September 2006. Data has been weighted by age, gender, work status and area.
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