"More People are Happy with the Council," says Independent Survey

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 15th Oct 2005

Milton Keynes residents are noticeably happier with council services than they were two years ago, according to the results of a new independent survey.

A total of 70% of people expressed satisfaction with the Council's overall performance, according to the 2005 Household Survey (compared to the previous figure of 50%). Residents were also very pleased with a number of specific services, in particularly those falling under the environment banner such as rubbish and recycling collection.

Liberal Democrat council leader Isobel McCall said: "This is a most useful report and we are very pleased that there are so many positive aspects here - particularly the significant increase in people's overall satisfaction with the Council."

The highest levels of satisfaction were with the environmental services at 75% - in particular the waste collection and the doorstep recycling collections. Cultural and recreation services - which includes libraries - also scored very highly (74%), as did education (62%).

Other findings of the report included:

• 61% of residents felt the council keeps them well informed about the services and benefits it provides

• 25% felt that the availability of affordable decent housing had got worse

• 23% felt that traffic congestion had got worse

• 89% of people felt they have easy access to key local services

• 87% of people were satisfied with the area where they live.