Confidence in council collection services nears record high

The Local Government Association’s (LGA) mid-year residents’ satisfaction poll, published this summer, showed satisfaction stood at 84%.

Confidence in council waste collection rose 6% from February 2020 when the last survey results were published.

The figure is now only 2% lower than the highest ever, when confidence stood at 86% in January 2013.

Between 11 and 14 June 2020, data was gathered from a representative random sample of 1,000 British adults aged 18 or over, polled by telephone by Populus Data Solutions. Questions were asked in the same order each time.

Ambitions

The LGA’s environment spokesman councillor David Renard told letsrecycle.com: “Councils have led their communities throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Despite facing a significant funding gap, they have innovated and created new services, while keeping essential waste and recycling services running and protecting the most vulnerable.

“Councils have led their communities throughout the coronavirus pandemic”

David Renard

“With the right tools and resources, councils can deliver on the ambitions we have for rebuilding and levelling up the diverse communities we represent.

“This is why we need a stronger working relationship across Whitehall, so that councils can effectively engage all of government in a debate about how we build services for the future, bringing forward the innovation and creative thinking councils have demonstrated during this crisis.

“Manufacturers need to use packaging which is fully and easily recyclable and government needs to ensure producers pay the full cost of recycling packaging. More importantly, manufacturers need to reduce waste at the point of source to stop unnecessary and unrecyclable material becoming an issue in the first place.”

Covid-19

At the same time as releasing its June satisfaction survey, the LGA published the results of a poll assessing the public’s confidence in their councils’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The survey found most people were satisfied with the way their local council was supporting them, their household and local community. Sixty-two per cent of the 912 adults polled in England and Wales said they were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’.

Writing for letsrecycle.com in May, councillor Paul Prescott, cabinet member for environmental services at Wigan council, suggested the newfound appreciation for council waste collection services could be retained after the pandemic (see letsrecycle.com story).