Christchurch council is best value for money

CHRISTCHURCH Borough provides the best value for money of all district councils in the South West according to a national Place Survey.

Residents are also the most satisfied people in Dorset, both in terms of where they live and with the council's services. Nationally, Christchurch is rated 14th out of 201 district councils for satisfaction with the authority's services and 4th highest in the South West.

Michael Turvey, Christchurch's chief executive, said: "It's very encouraging that so many of our residents are happy living in Christchurch and that the majority of them think we are doing a good job. It's also good to see so many of them thinking we provide good value for money. Of course it's a concern that there are still a lot of people who think we could do better.

"The areas which people think are most in need of improvement – the level of traffic congestion, activities for teenagers, road and pavement repairs, public transport and affordable decent housing – are all areas which are included in the council's priorities for Christchurch and which we aim to tackle as far as we are able."

He added: "We will now be examining the results of the survey in detail to see where we need to make the most improvements and to use the results to help plan and deliver our services in the future.

The Place Survey, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government was carried out nationally in autumn 2008 by way of a questionnaire which was posted to a random selection of residents.