	Consultation
	Torbay Council
	Town Hall Castle Circus Torquay TQ1 3DS
	consultation @torbay.gov.uk
	01803 208839

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ViewPoint Three

The Torbay residents' research panel View Point was set up during the summer of 1998. Using the 1991 Census the panel has been balanced, ward by ward, using quotas for age, gender and working status. This has been done to ensure that it is broadly statistically representative of Torbay as a whole.

The third questionnaire was mailed out to panel members in March 2000 and following a reminder letter, a pleasing response rate of 67% was achieved. This means that we can be confident that the results* are representative of the wider population of Torbay to within +/- 3.8%.

The third questionnaire was the most diverse yet, covering the following topics:

*Indexing has been used in the analysis of several questions in this survey. These questions has exclusively positive / negative answers, for example 'I agree / disagree or 'I am optimistic / pessimistic'. The Index Score is derived from the positive score minus the negative score, neutral scores (don't know etc.) are ignored. The greater the Index Score (Maximum 100) the more significant the result, either positive or negative. In turn , and Index Score of around zero indicates no clear consensus of opinion.

Trading Standards

Torbay Council's Trading Standards team sought the opinion on the sort of service panellists would like it to provide in the future and where they thought its priorities should lie. The Trading Standards team would like to target its future campaigns on local consumer issues of most concern to the public.

Members of the panel were presented with a list of local consumer issues and were asked to rate how concerned they were about each issue. Panellists were most concerned about:

Food composition and labelling
Home improvements and repairs

The panel were least concerned about about timeshare presentations and home working schemes.

In relation to the work of the Trading Standards Team, panellist were asked to highlight issues which the team should make a priority, the most popular issues were:

Product Safety
Food contents and labelling
The sale of goods with minimum legal age
Displayed information / misleading advertising
Weights and measures

A significantly higher proportion of respondents thought that vehicles loads (16%), consumer advice (16%) and consumer education (16%) should be given a low priority compared to the other activities listed.

When asked which two activities should be the top two priorities for the work of the Trading Standards Department, a majority of respondents said product safety (51%), 43% said food contents and labelling and 33% said sale of goods with minimum legal age.

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Waste and Recycling Services

Waste and Recycling Services aimed to assess public opinion of the Council's policy on kerbside recycling, together with the general topic of garden waste (grass cuttings, pruning, weeding etc.). The answers will be used to help identify the best ways to meet government targets on recycling. Viewpoint graphics

A majority of respondents (66%) were served by the twin-bin system of refuse collection, 29% by the traditional style bins and four per cent by communal bins.

Satisfaction was higher among respondents who were served by the twin-bins (83%) and communal bins (83%) compared to those served by the traditional style system of refuse collection (72%).

Likewise dissatisfaction was higher among those served by traditional style refuse collection system (21%) compared to those served by twin-bins (13%) and communal bins (13%).

Respondents whom were generally dissatisfied with the collection of their bins were asked why? The most frequently cited reasons were:

Bins should be emptied more frequently (36% of 101 respondents)
Generally poor service (14%)
Bins are left in the wrong place (11%).

The ViewPoint members who live in domestic properties but are not currently served by the twin-bin system of refuse collection were asked whether or not they would support or oppose its introduction in their street.

Forty eight per cent supported it (35% strongly) and 35% opposed it (22% strongly), resulting in a positive net index score of +13 (Base - 194 Respondents).

The most frequently cited reason by respondents who opposed the introduction of a twin-bin system of refuse collection in their street (Base - 66 Respondents) was 'no space for twin-bins' (39%). Other frequently cited reasons included 'time consuming' (16%), 'poor access – bins would have to go through houses' (14%) and 'area would look a mess' (10%). Viewpoint graphics

Panel members were presented with three schemes provided by Torbay Council with respect to garden waste. This includes a home collection service for garden waste (at a charge), Yalberton Civic Amenity Site (which municipally composts waste) and Discounted home compost bins for local residents.

88% of respondents were aware of the Yalberton Civic Amenity Site
37% were aware of the home collection service for garden waste
44% stated they were aware of the discounted home compost bins

Fifty nine percent of respondents were in agreement with the Councils current policy of not collecting garden waste but encouraging home composting. This produced and index score of +36. It should be noted, however, that a sizeable minority (23%) were in disagreement, 7% strongly.

Those who disagreed with policy (Base - 151 Respondents) were asked to explain their view. The most frequently cited reasons were:

Lots of people without cars
To Much hassle for the elderly
To expensive
Some panellists felt that all waste should be collected

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Torbay's Multi-Storey Car Parks

The first ViewPoint questionnaire identified 40% of the panel that thought the service provided in Torbay car parks could be improved. To help identify possible improvements, ViewPoint Three asked panellists their views on the standard of service in specific car parks.

Usage of certain Multi-Storey car parks in Torbay was low. One quarter or less respondents used Beacon Quay (25%), Crossways (23%), Brixham Marina (19%), and Roundham (15%) Multi-Storey car parks

Viewpoint graphics

It was also found that usage of Multi-Storey car parks was on a very infrequent basis – either every one to three months or less often. Generally speaking, higher proportions of respondents visited the Fleet Walk, Union Square and Lower Union Lane Multi-Storey car parks at least once a week, once a fortnight and approximately once a month.

Respondents were asked to rate how good or poor they thought certain aspects of service in the Multi-Storey car park they used more often to be. Nine out of eighteen aspects of service received an Index Score of above +50, these included:

Clarity of information about parking tariffs
Cleanliness of car parking levels
Reliability of ticket machines
General information signs in the car park
Adequacy of the lighting of the car park levels
Ease of driving around inside the car park
Ease of entry / exit to car park
Lighting of lifts
Reliability of lifts

Only one of the eighteen aspects of service, value for money received a negative Index Score (-23). It is worth noting, however, that although nearly all aspects received positive Index Scores, over one fifth of respondents rated the following aspects of service as poor:

The general appearance of the stairwell
Cleanliness of lifts
Cleanliness of the stairwell
Adequacy of size of car parking space
Availability of lifts

Respondents who said that they never visit Multi-Storey car parks or visit less often than every one to three months (Base - 217 Respondents) were asked to say why. One in three respondents said that they could always find a space in a side street, one in four mentioned that they refused to pay for parking and one in five mentioned concern of car crime in multi-Storey car parks.

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Private Sector Housing

The Council is reviewing its housing strategy to decide the best way to improve housing conditions. As there is not enough money available to address all of the urgent issues, the views of the ViewPoint panel will help in prioritising theses issues.

Viewpoint graphics

ViewPoint members were presented with a list of housing work and asked to say whether or not they thought that a loan, grant or nothing should be made available to owner-occupiers (see graph opposite) and private landlords to carry out the work.

Respondents were more likely to allocate nothing to private landlords compared to owner-occupiers

For the majority of work, respondents were more likely to allocate a loan as opposed to a grant to both owner occupiers and private landlords. The exception to this rule being in relation to providing security measures for the elderly / vulnerable, reducing high radon gas levels, and providing fire precautions where more respondents would allocate a grant as opposed to a loan to owner occupiers.

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Torbay's Local Plan

The Council has a legal responsibility to prepare a Local Plan for Torbay to provide policies and proposals for the conservation, regeneration and development of land and buildings in the area. The Plan (1995-2011) is produced in stages, on the basis of Government guidance. As a first stage, a Consultation Draft Local Plan was published for comment in July 1996. The new Deposit Version of the Plan, the most resent stage of the process, was published for comment in July 1999.

The answers of panellists will be used to help the Council to assess the effectiveness of the way in which it publicises the Local Plan.

Fifty seven per cent of respondents (Base - 395) said that they were aware that Torbay Council has to produce a Local Plan, 28% said that they were not aware. Of those who said that they were aware, 59% said that they felt that they understood generally what a Local Plan covers, 24% said that they did not understand.

15% of respondents (Base 107) said that they were aware of the public consultation period for the Deposit Version of the Local Plan with the majority (66%) saying that they were not aware.
Of those respondents who said that they were aware of the consultation period for the Deposit Version of the Local Plan, 29% said that they had looked at a copy while 40% thought that it would be easy to look at a copy.
Thirty six per cent said that they knew how to make a comment about a policy or proposal in the plan while 13% said that they had made a comment.

The Herald Express (73%) was the most frequently cited source through which respondents had become aware of the public consultation period for the local plan. When asked where people had looked at a copy of the Deposit Version of the Local Plan, the most frequently cited places were Torquay Library (22%), Brixham Library (18%) and Paignton Library (15%).

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Connections Shops

Torbay Council operates 'Connections' shops in Brixham, Paignton and Torquay, designed to be a 'first stop shop' for information regarding all aspects of Council work. The ViewPoint panel was used to assess the level of awareness, usage and satisfaction of the Connections shops among Torbay residents.

Half of respondents (50%) were aware of at least one of the connections shops in Torbay while 27% of respondents were aware of all three.

Respondents who were aware of the Torquay Connections shop, 39% said that they had visited it, 23% said that it was the shop they normally visited and 12% said that they had telephoned the shop
Of those respondents who were aware of the Paignton Connections shop, 21% said that they had visited it, 13% said that it was the shop they normally visited and 6% said that they had telephoned the shop
Respondents who were aware of the Brixham Connections shop, 11% said that they had visited it, 10% said that it was the shop they normally visited and 3% said that they had telephoned the shop
Panellists were asked how often they visited Connections Shops (If they used more than one, panellists were asked to answer in respect of the one they use most often).
Very few respondents visited the Connections shop more often once a fortnight
Around one in four respondents used them about once a month
Three in ten respondents used them about once every half year

Council Tax (61%) was the most frequently cited reason for visiting Connections shops. Over one in ten respondents also mentioned housing benefits (17%), to find out general facts and figures about Torbay (16%), planning / building regulations application / issues (13%), and refuse / rubbish collection (10%).

When asked to describe how staff handled their enquiry, seven out of ten respondents (70%) chose the statement 'The enquiry was completely handled by connections staff'. It is reassuring to note that only two percent of respondents chose the statement 'Connections staff could not help me'.

ViewPoint members were presented with a list of statements relating to the standard of service they had received from Connections staff on their last visit to a shop and asked to say whether or not they agreed or disagreed with them. All statements received a positive Index Score of +59% or more. Statements which received an Index Score of +80 or more included:

The interior of the Connections shop looked well presented
The employee was well presented and looked professional
The employee was helpful

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