STILTON VILLAGE APPRAISAL 1999 |
|
|
PART 2: VILLAGE APPRAISAL |
|
| Purpose: to determine villagers' impressions of local
councils and council taxes. Issues: local politics and local government, council tax and expenditure. |
|
KEY FINDINGS |
|
| 7.1 43% of respondents felt that Stilton Parish Council had done a good or reasonable job of publicising their decisions and activities. This fell to 23% for Huntingdonshire District Council and to 21% for Cambridgeshire County Council. (Q51) |
|
| 7.2 Whilst over three quarters (78%) of respondents felt that insufficient publicity had been given to planning applications which affect Stilton (Q54), nearly the same proportion (73%) were satisfied with the appearance of new buildings in Stilton (Q55) and nearly two thirds (64%) were satisfied with the way that the planning system had been implemented (Q56). | |
| Some of the publications used by the County, District and Parish Councils to communicate with residents : | |
| Each Spring, Cambridgeshire County Council publishes the Council
Tax Demand, showing the bill for services provided by Cambridgeshire
County Council, Cambridgeshire Police Authority, Huntingdonshire District
Council, and where applicable the Parish Councils, for every town
and parish in the county. This is accompanied by leaflets explaining the Tax from the County Council, District Council, and Police Authority perspective. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
   |
|
| "District Wide" is a newsletter published every few months by Huntingdonshire District Council, reporting on council performance in a variety of topics. | |
|
|
| SCAN (Stilton Community Association Newsletter) is published every month, and contains Parish Council details, and information about the village including the school, playgroup, local news, the Twinning Association, a crime report from the 'village bobby', and a calendar of local activities and events. |
|
| 7.3 Over half of respondents to the overall question of council spending
did not know, or did not fill in, whether they were satisfied with the way
that their money is being spent by the respective local councils. One third of respondents felt satisfied with how Stilton Parish Council [32%] had spent its portion of the Council Tax. However satisfaction with the District Council was lower at 23% and lower still at 20% of respondents for Cambridgeshire County Council spending. (Q52) |
|
| 7.4 Nearly half of respondents [48%] were prepared to pay a slightly higher Council Tax to meet some of the specific needs of Stilton e.g. more special rubbish collections. (Q53) |
|
