Citizens' Panel Newsletter

Issue 10: Winter 2010

Download a full colour copy of the newsletter 1.92 MB

In this Newsletter:

• Priority Consultation
• Accessing Council Services
• Adult Safeguarding
• Licensing in Tameside
• You & Your Community
• Getting Involved
• You Choose

Welcome!

This is the latest Citizens’ Panel update where we tell you the results from our Winter 2010 survey. Thanks so much to all of you who took the time to fill in the questionnaires and send them back to us. The results are really helping us to make informed decisions when planning and developing services across the Council.

Your Priorities

In light of the current economic climate and reduction in public spending, we asked which of Tameside’s priorities are most important to you. It is vital that we listen to the views of local people when setting the budget, particularly in light of the difficult decisions we need to make to achieve the scale of reductions required.

You told us that your top priorities are to:

• Reduce crime, re-offending and the harm caused by drugs and alcohol (85% high priority)
• Increase skills and employment (82% high priority)
• Encourage new businesses in Tameside (73% high priority)

Many of you also took the opportunity to suggest how you feel we can best focus our resources over the next twelve months and beyond. Your comments covered a wide range of topics including use of alternative resources, community safety, economic developments, support for the vulnerable, children and young people, arts and leisure facilities and much more.

Your feedback will be used as part of the evidence considered in determining the Council’s priorities are properly aligned with those of local people. Our aim is to ensure we are still able to do the things you have identified as being important, despite the savings that need to be made. We also hope that further savings can be found in some priority areas as new and more efficient ways of working are developed.

Great lives, excellent services

We wanted to find out more about how you contact the Council and your thoughts on our website.

Over the last 12 months, the most popular methods of contacting the Council were:

• By phone (49% used as main method)
• Online at www.tameside.gov.uk (36% used as main method).

Many Council services are currently delivered online and the Council website is a great way of accessing services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Almost two thirds of you have used the Council website in the past year. From your responses, we know the majority of you use the website to ‘access general information about the Council’ (57%) or to ‘find out about a specific Council service e.g. bin collection dates’ (56%).

The most popular reasons for not using the website were:

• Not having internet access (31%)
• Preferring to speak to someone face-to-face (21%)
• Preferring to speak to someone on the telephone (26%)

We also wanted to know which measures would encourage you to use the Council website more in future. 40% of you would like to see more services available online, while 37% of you would use the website more if it was quicker.

More and more Council services will be available online in the future, so keep checking our website for more information.

Adult Safeguarding

The recent Citizens’ Panel results show 16% of you are aware of the Tameside Adult Safeguarding Partnership (TASP). Of those panel members aware of TASP, 19% have contacted them previously for advice and support.

TASP are keen to raise the profile of safeguarding adults from abuse. Work is in progress to ensure information is widely available in the community and that all Tameside residents over the age of 18 are aware how they can access support to ensure they live a life free from abuse and neglect. In addition to updates on the Council website, a promotional event is planned on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on the 15th June 2011 in the Arcades Shopping Centre, Ashton-under-Lyne.

If you would like more information please visit www.tameside.gov.uk/socialcare/adultabuse or call the Safeguarding Adults Team on 0161 342 5229.

Licensing in Tameside

The Council’s Licensing Team are responsible for maintaining and improving standards of public safety in terms of licensed premises, persons and vehicles. In the Winter 2010 survey we asked for your views on a number of licensing related issues.

Licensing Act 2003

The overwhelming majority of you (86%) think there are enough bars, pubs and clubs in Tameside. Over nine in ten (94%) think there are enough off-licenses or supermarkets, while two-thirds (66%) think there are enough restaurants licensed to sell alcohol.

Most of you (78%) buy alcohol at supermarkets and off-licenses, with nearly half buying alcohol in pubs (48%) and restaurants (47%). A further 16% of you said you do not purchase alcohol.

When drinking socially, 68% of you do so at home or at friend’s houses, 52% go out to pubs and clubs in Tameside and 32% head to Manchester city centre. Of those who leave the borough, the most popular reasons were because friends live there or for a change of scenery.

Adult Entertainment

Local authorities are able to adopt laws so that anyone wishing to operate a venue for adult entertainment must obtain a license to do so. Tameside Council is considering adopting this legislation and we asked for your views on this subject.

Nearly half of you (49%) would object to an adult entertainment venue opening in your local area, while 40% would not object as long as the location was discreet and the remainder would not object at all. When asked where would be the best place for a venue of this type to be located the most popular response was in a town centre (39%), although a further 38% of you said we do not need any adult entertainment venues in the borough.

We also asked what type of controls you think would be appropriate for the Council to impose in a license of this kind. The most popular controls were a restriction on proximity to schools, churches and parks (66%), procedures to ensure that workers or customers are not exploited (39%) and restrictions on signage and displays on the front of the building (35%).

Hackney Taxi Carriages

Back in the Spring 2010 survey we included a set of questions about private hire vehicles. Following on from this, the latest survey asked for your views on hackney carriages.

The majority of you (70%) would welcome the addition of new vehicles to the fleet other than the London-style black cabs, specifically the Mercedes Vito Taxi or Peugeot E7.

We asked how well the current fleet meets your needs across a range of different areas. Nine out of ten of you (94%) feel the current fleet is easy to access. A further 93% of you agreed the exterior cleanliness of vehicles meets your needs, while 92% said the same for interior cleanliness. Whilst slightly less of you (81%) feel that disabled access is adequate in the current fleet, 90% of you do agree your safety needs are met.

Three-quarters of you (74%) agree with the proposal to introduce an age limit for hackney taxi carriage vehicles.

All of these results will be used by the Licensing Team to feed into policy development. If you have questions about any aspect of the Licensing process please visit www.tameside.gov.uk/licensing or contact the Licensing Team on 0161 301 3021.

Getting to know you…

The recent Citizens’ Panel results show that community spirit is strong in Tameside.

The majority of you meet and talk to people from different backgrounds to yourself at least once a week. Almost two thirds (63%) of you said this, significantly more than in 2009 when this figure stood at 58%.

Over two thirds (70%) of you also strongly feel that you belong to your immediate neighbourhood.

This information will be used by the Council and its partners to look at how together we can improve these results even further.

Getting involved

Tameside Council and its partners are committed to ensuring local residents are provided with opportunities to have their say. We wanted to know about your experience of influencing local decision making.

In total, 45% of you agree you can influence decisions affecting your local area. A further 62% also agree that local decision makers value the work of voluntary and community groups in Tameside.

Just under two-thirds of you (65%) said you do not feel well informed about the opportunities available to get involved in local decision making. Local voluntary organisations, health services and the Council will be looking to improve this over the coming year.

There are a number of ways you can get involved in local decision making. These include joining a voluntary group, taking part in Tameside Voice (a network of organisations offering people opportunities to influence local decision-making), commenting on planning applications, attending a District Assembly meeting, contacting your local Councillor or voting in local elections.

For more information on how to get your voice heard please visit www.t3sc.org  or call 0161 339 4985.

Details of more ways you can get involved and have your say in Tameside can also be found at www.tameside.gov.uk/haveyoursay.

‘You Choose’

Tameside residents will get the opportunity to decide which projects they want to see go ahead in their communities this year through the exciting new ‘You Choose’ initiative.

You Choose gives local people a say on a series of projects which community groups would like to run in their areas. Residents will vote on the projects they most want in their local District Assembly area. Winners of the public vote get to deliver their projects, funded by the Council, but chosen by local communities.

The nominated projects will be delivered by Tameside based organisations and will look to make the borough a better place to live by improving quality of life.

The Council has previously provided grant funding to support local community groups to deliver projects, but the You Choose initiative takes this a step further with members of the community at the heart of choosing what happens in their area. This approach is known as participatory budgeting and replaces the existing way the Council provides smaller community based grants.

The Council aims to hold eight You Choose events across the borough in 2011 so keep a look out for the one in your area!

Please visit www.tameside.gov.uk/youchoose or contact the Policy, Partnerships & Scrutiny team on 0161 342 3149 for more information.