Rutherglen and Cambuslang the area most happy with South Lanarkshire Council

Dec 8 2010 by Douglas Dickie, Rutherglen Reformer

Rutherglen and Cambuslang the area most happy with South Lanarkshire Council

RESIDENTS living in Rutherglen and Cambuslang are the most satisfied by council services in the whole of South Lanarkshire.

Those who responded the council’s second household survey handed the council a 91.3 per cent satisfaction rating, compared with just 79.6 per cent in East Kilbride - the lowest in the region.

And council staff have been widely praised, with satisfaction levels of 92.3 per cent across the region while the overall service provided by the council was rated at 84 per cent, but 91.3 per cent in the local area.

Residents in Rutherglen and Cambuslang awarded the council the highest marks in all 14 general services analysis and in 11 out of 18 council services.

The survey was conducted as a follow up to one carried out in 2008, with the results indicating an overall drop in performance. The results were presented to councillors at an executive committee last week.

Councillors were told that older people tended to be happier with the work carried out by the council, with satisfaction levels of 89.7 per cent for the over 65 age group compared to just 76.2 per cent in the 31-39s.

The least satisfied group was male owner-occupiers aged between 21 and 39 with males over 65 living in council homes the most satisfied.

Library services proved to be the most praised with a mark of nearly 95 per cent, up 2.2 per cent from two years ago, and 93.1 per cent in Rutherglen and Cambuslang.

Other services to score well locally included education (90 per cent), refuse collection (86.4 per cent) and the processing of benefits (87.2 per cent).

However, residents were less pleased with the council’s actions in maintaining roads with a rating of just 28.5 per cent in Rutherglen and Cambuslang, although council officers are putting that down to the memory of last winter’s freezing conditions.

Also scoring under 50 per cent was tackling anti-social behaviour (37.1 per cent). The next lowest was services for younger people (56 per cent). Although cleanliness of streets scored only 49.5 per cent, locals were more generous rating it at 59.2 per cent.

Council officers say that the key themes from the survey were the state of roads, litter and refuse uplifts and recycling.

Other key points involved the overall council service with complaints about a lack of frontline staff and poor handling of complaints as well as general dissatisfaction with the council as a whole.

A report to councillors states the authority will continue with their communication strategy in roads services and linking the tackling of litter to recycling and refuse collection, which scored highly on the survey.