Falkirk Council

Falkirk Council regularly asks its customers what they think about our services and our future plans through surveys, meetings and other forms of consultation.

Every two years the Council carries out a customer satisfaction survey and this year's attracted more than 4200 responses from local residents.

This year people were asked about their experiences of dealing with the Council and to rate their satisfaction with a number of key services like refuse collection.

The public were asked to rate the services they get when they telephone the Council and when they visit an office:

• 85% of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with the helpfulness and courtesy of staff on the phone
• 76% of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with staff knowledge
• 73% of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with the overall standard of service
• 82% of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with the time taken to answer the phone
• 74% of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with the ease of getting through to someone who could help them

Access to Council buildings and external signage were also highly rated, with more than 80% of respondents saying they were good.

Litter collection and control of dog fouling continue to be areas of concern for local people. In recent years the Council has given a high priority to tackling problems caused by litter and dog fouling and to educating the public through its "Litter: There's No Excuse campaign".

Satisfaction rates for litter collection and control of dog fouling have risen noticeably since 2006 according to the survey results:

• 53% satisfaction rate for litter collection(up from 47% in 2006),
• 33% satisfaction rate for control of dog fouling (up from 26%)
• 85% of respondents were either very or fairly satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live (up from 81% in 2006)
• 56% think their area has not changed much over the past two years, although 27% think it is getting worse. 

These figures are in line with the findings from the 2006 survey. 

55% of respondents do not think the Falkirk Council area has changed much over the last two years, while 16% think it is getting better and 25% think it is getting worse.

The survey asked residents what would most improve their area:

• 29% said less litter (down from 34% in 2006)
• 24% said better roads,
• 15% said improved town centres and
• 9% better parks.

89% of residents feel either very safe or fairly safe in their local area during the day, although this drops to 51% after dark compared with 84% and 47% in 2006 and 80% and 45% in 2004, showing a steady improvement over the last four years.

The survey also showed more people were interested in:

• neighbourhood issues
• adult learning,
• community care and home care
• schools performance

The survey results also showed continuing high levels of satisfaction with:

• refuse collection (82% very satisfied or satisfied)
• special uplifts (60% satisfied or very satisfied)
• and street lighting (84% very satisfied or satisfied, up from 70% in 2006).