City Tracker paints a picture of what we like about Brighton and Hove

We like our pharmacists, firefighters and family doctor but we’re less keen on the dentist, mental health services and the council.

Those were the headline findings of the City Tracker Survey, an independent piece of research carried out on behalf of the public sector in Brighton and Hove.

More than nine in ten out of a thousand local people polled over the phone said that East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service used money wisely.

Only half thought the same was true about Brighton and Hove City Council. This was a marked drop since the previous survey four months earlier.

In a report this week to Brighton and Hove Connected – a gathering of the great and good formerly known as the Local Strategic Partnership – the figure was compared with the 52 per cent nationally who think their local council provides value for money.

The report is featured in the Brighton and Hove Independent free weekly newspaper which was published today (Friday 14 March).

Among other key findings were that 60 per cent were satisfied with council services. This compared with the 72 per cent who were found by a national poll to be satisfied with their local council.

And 89 per cent were satisfied with Brighton and Hove as a place to live. Those most satisfied were 35 to 44-year-olds – 95 per cent of them – while those least satisfied were over 65s, with a figure of just 82 per cent.

When asked “If you could change one thing about Brighton and Hove, what would it be?” most comments related to traffic and transport, the council/administration and parking.

Cycle lanes also cropped up with equally modest numbers making positive and negative remarks about them.

Two fifths – or 40 per cent – regarded air pollution as a big problem. In Portslade the proportion rose to 55 per cent.

Asked if the council was good at keeping their street clean, 69 per cent agreed. The national average was 74 per cent. Locally 22 per cent disagreed with the suggestion.

Three quarters – or 75 per cent – agreed that the council was good at collecting rubbish compared with 89 per cent last year and 84 per cent nationally. The proportion who disagreed was 19 per cent.

And 75 per cent also agreed that the council was good at collecting recycling, down from 86 per cent last year while 17 per cent disagreed.

The telephone polling took place in September and October last year – after the strike by binmen and street cleaners and just as the rounds were being reorganised.

Fieldworkers from MEL Research carried out the sixth and final wave of polling under the current two-year contract in late January and early February. The results should be known in the coming month or so.

The surveys look likely to become an annual event from now on, taking place in the autumn … if everybody’s happy.