North Northamptonshire Council reveals its core priorities for next four years after residents' satisfaction survey

The Reform UK-led authority said its four priority themes will be family, community, prosperity and smarter, faster and fairer public services.

The council’s corporate plan promises that the public will see changes in children and young people achieving better educational and life outcomes, better roads, transport, and infrastructure, greater availability and quality of housing, a resilient economy and stronger cultural identity, and an improvement in customer satisfaction and a reduction in complaints, among many other goals.

The document was written with the views from NNC’s residents’ survey in mind, which found that 68 per cent of people were satisfied with their area as a place to live.

Satisfaction levels with councils nationally have been dropping year-on-year for over a decade, however the levels in North Northamptonshire are below the national average of 74 per cent.

Other key results, which captured the views of a sample of 500 local residents, found that only 28 per cent of people felt that NNC provides good value for money and almost two-thirds of respondents felt that they were not well-informed about council services.

Just 47 per cent said they believed the council acts on residents’ concerns, which is significantly lower than the national figure of 53 per cent.

Speaking at a scrutiny meeting on Tuesday (October 21), Lyn Buckingham, a North Northants resident and former unitary councillor, said: “Let’s not sugarcoat it – the council’s biggest reputation problem isn’t just potholes or planning, it’s communication. Right now, our residents don’t feel part of the conversation.

“People are tired of consultations that feel pre-decided, emails that go unanswered and switchboards that send them in circles.

“To build trust, we need to rebuild connections. Residents don’t expect us to be perfect, they just expect us to turn up, tell the truth and follow through.”

She added that she saw a gap in the corporate plan, where the administration has told residents what it hopes to achieve but not how it will be measured.

She asked for a key performance indicator framework to be implemented, which would give an overview of outcomes, costs of services and related risks, to show the impact of every pound spent and ‘earn back the public trust’.

NNC leader, Cllr Martin Griffiths, said: “We knew this survey would be challenging – that’s why we did it.

“We like the phrase ‘you said, we listened, we delivered’ and that’s what we intend to do going forward. It sets us apart and it also puts us on the right direction.

“More work will be required to measure the outcomes of the plan and measure the success. That will be picked up by a combination of the annual delivery plan, service plans and our performance management arrangements.”

According to the survey, most residents said making areas safer and encouraging vibrant and thriving town centres were their highest priorities for the next five to 10 years.

The maintenance of roads and pathways, waste collection, and community safety services were also voted as the most important services to local communities.

Cllr Kirk Harrison, executive member for regulatory services, added: “We felt that it was really really important to carry out this survey now, early on in our administration, to give us a marker and a strong indicator on where we are right now.

“As we progress into our administration, we’ll be able to do this again and to really see just how well our improvements and our priorities have gone down throughout the community.”

The scrutiny committee put forward a recommendation for further resident satisfaction surveys to be completed bi-annually to monitor progress and the public confidence in the council.

NNC’s corporate plan will be taken to the executive in November, before going before full council at the end of the year for its formal adoption.