'Our Place' Feedback

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How your feedback has made a difference

The ‘Our Place’ survey is an important piece of research that we use to help shape local services. What you have told us is invaluable in informing our plans to improve the local area. Overall people’s perceptions of the borough are generally positive.

The majority of people told us that they…

  • are satisfied with their local area as a place to live
  • feel a strong sense of belonging
  • are involved in their local community.

People also highlighted the following areas for development:

  • People feeling safe when out and about after dark
  • People feeling a sense of community in the area where they live
  • Key services that benefit all residents such as highways, waste and street cleaning
  • Being more responsive to residents’ views and concerns

These findings are already being used to support key areas of work. A brief explanation of how services are beginning to respond is shown in the table below.

Area for improvement

Our response

People are generally satisfied with their local area as a place to live, feel a strong sense of belonging and are involved in their local community
  • The Council will continue to work closely with communities to improve neighbourhoods and enable communities and local groups to develop activities that support their residents.

People feeling less safe when out and about after dark

  • The Cheshire West and Chester Community Safety Partnership, which is made up of key local partners including the Council, the Police, Fire and Rescue and Health services, work together to make the borough a safe place to live, work and visit.
  • The survey findings will be considered by the Community Safety Partnership, alongside other Police and crime data, to develop an action plan to improve feelings of community across the borough.

People feeling a sense of less community in the area where they live

  • The Council has a Communities team that supports residents and Councillors on local projects that bring communities together. During the pandemic that team has been heavily involved in the local COVID-19 response. Moving forward they will be continuing their vital work, helping to improve the sense of togetherness within communities.
  • We will continue to support communities across the borough and a new post has been created to increase our work with minority communities, to ensure their voices are heard and their needs are addressed.
  • The Council will also be reinstating a number of community diversity events put on hold during the pandemic, alongside a fund to support projects that promote diversity and inclusion across the borough.
  • A new Hate Crime Strategy is also due to launch in Spring, to raise awareness of hate crime across the borough, as well as improve the way we and other partners such as the Police respond.

Making improvements to services that benefit all residents such as highways, waste and street cleaning

  • The Council strives to deliver high quality universal services within available resources.
  • Often council resources are constrained for these services due to our responsibilities to provide care for vulnerable adults and children, nevertheless we will constantly look for opportunities to improve them.
  • We are redesigning our system for reporting highways issues to help prioritise incidents and ensure that the most important issues are dealt with first. The standard of road repairs are also being improved, so that issues are fixed the first time around, reducing the need for repeat repairs. We will also be focusing on customers experience and ensuring regular, timely communication with customers about any reported issues.
  • The pandemic, floods and severe storms have impacted on our Environmental Services, so an action plan is in place to improve these services moving forward. This includes delivering on the new Waste Strategy to improve the way we deal with the borough’s waste, alongside a new Environmental Management Strategy with improved service standards and targets, and temporary additional investment of £500,000 into Street Cleaning services.

Being more responsive to residents’ views and concerns

  • We are always looking to improve the experience of residents in all their contact with us. This includes reviewing the way we handle our contact with customers and developing new service standards, to improve the quality and timeliness of our responses. Our Mystery Shopping Programme is also gathering feedback from customers, to help inform service developments, and we will soon be offering Participate Panel members an opportunity take part in mystery shopping. We are also launching a new, improved website in the Spring, with a new telephony system launching later this year, alongside a new face to face appointment service from a wide range of locations.
  • We will continue to work closely with our communities and others to design and deliver services. We have reviewed our processes for public consultation to make it easier for local people to have their say and influence decisions. We also consider the views of residents who have lived experiences, to help shape our policy decisions and services, whether that be older people, carers, people experiencing poverty or children in care.
  • When the Council carries out engagement and consultation, we always listen to local people’s views and try to accommodate them as far as possible. However, sometimes we are not in a position to fully accommodate everyone’s views, as there are a range of factors that need to be considered when making complex and sometimes difficult decisions.




How your feedback has made a difference

The ‘Our Place’ survey is an important piece of research that we use to help shape local services. What you have told us is invaluable in informing our plans to improve the local area. Overall people’s perceptions of the borough are generally positive.

The majority of people told us that they…

  • are satisfied with their local area as a place to live
  • feel a strong sense of belonging
  • are involved in their local community.

People also highlighted the following areas for development:

  • People feeling safe when out and about after dark
  • People feeling a sense of community in the area where they live
  • Key services that benefit all residents such as highways, waste and street cleaning
  • Being more responsive to residents’ views and concerns

These findings are already being used to support key areas of work. A brief explanation of how services are beginning to respond is shown in the table below.

Area for improvement

Our response

People are generally satisfied with their local area as a place to live, feel a strong sense of belonging and are involved in their local community
  • The Council will continue to work closely with communities to improve neighbourhoods and enable communities and local groups to develop activities that support their residents.

People feeling less safe when out and about after dark

  • The Cheshire West and Chester Community Safety Partnership, which is made up of key local partners including the Council, the Police, Fire and Rescue and Health services, work together to make the borough a safe place to live, work and visit.
  • The survey findings will be considered by the Community Safety Partnership, alongside other Police and crime data, to develop an action plan to improve feelings of community across the borough.

People feeling a sense of less community in the area where they live

  • The Council has a Communities team that supports residents and Councillors on local projects that bring communities together. During the pandemic that team has been heavily involved in the local COVID-19 response. Moving forward they will be continuing their vital work, helping to improve the sense of togetherness within communities.
  • We will continue to support communities across the borough and a new post has been created to increase our work with minority communities, to ensure their voices are heard and their needs are addressed.
  • The Council will also be reinstating a number of community diversity events put on hold during the pandemic, alongside a fund to support projects that promote diversity and inclusion across the borough.
  • A new Hate Crime Strategy is also due to launch in Spring, to raise awareness of hate crime across the borough, as well as improve the way we and other partners such as the Police respond.

Making improvements to services that benefit all residents such as highways, waste and street cleaning

  • The Council strives to deliver high quality universal services within available resources.
  • Often council resources are constrained for these services due to our responsibilities to provide care for vulnerable adults and children, nevertheless we will constantly look for opportunities to improve them.
  • We are redesigning our system for reporting highways issues to help prioritise incidents and ensure that the most important issues are dealt with first. The standard of road repairs are also being improved, so that issues are fixed the first time around, reducing the need for repeat repairs. We will also be focusing on customers experience and ensuring regular, timely communication with customers about any reported issues.
  • The pandemic, floods and severe storms have impacted on our Environmental Services, so an action plan is in place to improve these services moving forward. This includes delivering on the new Waste Strategy to improve the way we deal with the borough’s waste, alongside a new Environmental Management Strategy with improved service standards and targets, and temporary additional investment of £500,000 into Street Cleaning services.

Being more responsive to residents’ views and concerns

  • We are always looking to improve the experience of residents in all their contact with us. This includes reviewing the way we handle our contact with customers and developing new service standards, to improve the quality and timeliness of our responses. Our Mystery Shopping Programme is also gathering feedback from customers, to help inform service developments, and we will soon be offering Participate Panel members an opportunity take part in mystery shopping. We are also launching a new, improved website in the Spring, with a new telephony system launching later this year, alongside a new face to face appointment service from a wide range of locations.
  • We will continue to work closely with our communities and others to design and deliver services. We have reviewed our processes for public consultation to make it easier for local people to have their say and influence decisions. We also consider the views of residents who have lived experiences, to help shape our policy decisions and services, whether that be older people, carers, people experiencing poverty or children in care.
  • When the Council carries out engagement and consultation, we always listen to local people’s views and try to accommodate them as far as possible. However, sometimes we are not in a position to fully accommodate everyone’s views, as there are a range of factors that need to be considered when making complex and sometimes difficult decisions.