	Consultation
	Torbay Council
	Town Hall Castle Circus Torquay TQ1 3DS
	consultation @torbay.gov.uk
	01803 208839

Do It Online

External Links

Please note: all external links open in a new window

ViewPoint One

This first postal survey of panel members was undertaken in December 1998/January 1999. A pleasing response rate of 75% was obtained and meant that we could be confident that the results* were broadly representative of the population of Torbay to within 3.6%.

Topics that were put to the panel within the first questionnaire included:

*

Indexing has been used in the analysis of several questions in this survey. These questions has exclusively positive / negative answers, for example 'I agree / disagree or 'I am optimistic / pessimistic'. The Index Score is derived from the positive score minus the negative score, neutral scores (don't know etc.) are ignored. The greater the Index Score (Maximum 100) the more significant the result, either positive or negative. In turn , and Index Score of around zero indicates no clear consensus of opinion.

Quality of Life

This section asked panellists questions about the general environment of Torbay, and about the local neighbourhood they live in.

Over three-quarters (77%) of respondents were satisfied with their local neighbourhood:
24% of panellists said they were very satisfied
53% of panellists said they were fairly satisfied
Only 9% of respondents stated that they were dissatisfied (6% were fairly dissatisfied and 3% said they were very dissatisfied). Twelve percent of respondents were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their local neighbourhood and 2% were unsure how they felt.
An index score of +68 suggests a very positive response to the question.

Overall, satisfaction with the Torbay area was lower than for respondents' local areas. Approximately two-thirds (72%) said they were satisfied. Nine percent of respondents said that they were very satisfied. However, the majority (56%) said that they were fairly satisfied.

Although not as positive as the responses for local neighbourhood, an index score of +48 indicates a high level of satisfaction.

Top

Local Services

The Council sought the views of the panel on their satisfaction with local services that are provided in Torbay.

View Point members were presented with a list of local services and were asked to say which organisation they thought was mainly responsible for the provision of each service. The services most correctly identified as being provided by Torbay Council (a Unitary Authority), were:

Parks and recreation services
Refuse collection & disposal
Tourism & marketing
CC TV in town centres
Road and pavement maintenance
Museums

It is interesting to note that over 30% of respondents still considered Education to be a Devon County Council function, and over 40% considered Health Care to be a local authority function.

Panellists were then presented with a list of local council services and asked to select only those services which they considered are provided particularly well:

Library Services
Refuse Collection
Adult Education
Recycling facilities
Street lighting
Arts and entertainment's

The most cited services for improvement were:

Roads and pavement maintenance
Facilities for the disabled
Care of the elderly
Childcare facilities
Parks, playgrounds & open spaces
Street cleaning

Schools

^ Top

Economic Development

This covered questions regarding job opportunities in the Torbay area and economic development. The panel was also presented with the Council's mission statement for economic development, and asked whether they agreed with this or not.

Council Economic Development Mission Statement

"To improve and broaden the economic base of the area in the face of fundamental changes in the tourism industry expected in the next 20 years".

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents said they agreed with the council's statement.
The proportion of respondents who disagreed with the mission statement was extremely low, with only 7% of respondents saying they disagreed.

View Point respondents also were in agreement with the Council's aim of diversifying the economic base of Torbay away from Tourism, which is at the heart of the Council's economic development mission statement.

Respondents were asked to state their level of agreement, with regards to education opportunities within Torbay and the ease of finding a job:

32% of respondents regarded there were sufficient training & education opportunities in Torbay
38% of the panel agreed that they had no difficulty getting a job in Torbay

Three-quarters of View Point respondents said they did not intend to leave the area in the next three years, whereas 15% said it was a consideration.

Those respondents who identified that they were considering leaving Torbay in the next three years were asked to say 'why?'. The reasons selected from a pre-coded list included:

Employment opportunities (lack of suitable jobs in Torbay)
Lack of permanent jobs in Torbay
Lack of satisfying working in Torbay
Educational opportunities (going away to university / college)

Top

Shopping in Torbay

This section looked at shopping in Torbay town centres, and aimed to record panellist's views on what could be done to improve those shopping centres. Regular food shopping trips were asked to be discounted from the respondent's answers.

When asked about shopping in the local town centres of Torbay, over a third of respondents (35%) visited Torquay town centre and 33% visited Paignton town centre on a weekly basis. Brixham, the smallest town, was visited by 12% of respondents on a weekly basis.

Of the three town centres Torquay is the most popular shopping destination for regular shoppers with 73% saying that they shop in the town on at least a monthly or more often. Torquay residents are the most frequent weekly visitors to Torquay town centre and similarly this is true for Paignton and Brixham shoppers.

Looking at Torquay town centre in terms of length of shopping trip:

43% of respondents spend between one and two hours shopping in the town
14% of them spend up to an hour
27% spend between three and four hours shopping

Similarly, 41% of respondents go shopping in Paignton town centre for between one to two hours and a quarter (25%) spend up to an hour. In Brixham town centre 23% of respondents spend up to an hour shopping and the same amount spend between one and two hours shopping.

Respondents were asked if they visited any other destinations in the county to go shopping. The most popular venue was The Willows shopping centre, Exeter City Centre and Trago Mills.

Respondents were asked to say why they visited these 'other' destinations. Reasons given were:

Because they offered free parking
The shops were larger than those found in the centres of Torbay, Paignton and Brixham
Because they contained speciality shops
They have a greater range of shops and pleasant shopping environment

Respondents were asked to cite two or three improvements that would encourage them to visit the city centres more often. Over a third of them stated that larger / better range of shops would attract them to town centres. Other recommendations were made for the introduction of cheaper car parking, more access to / more car parking spaces and for pedestrianisation of the shopping areas. A sizable minority also felt that the introduction of free car parking would draw them to city centres.

Respondents were asked whether the installation of CC TV had made them feel safer in Torbay's town centres and multi-storey car parks.

For Torquay town centre, three-fifths (60%) of respondents felt safer since the installation of CC TV, but over a quarter (27%) stated that their feelings of safety had not changed. Just under half (46%) of respondents felt safer in Paignton town centre. Only 27% felt safer in Brixham town centre since the installation of CC TV.

The greatest impact of CC TV can be found in multi-storey car parks across the bay, where 61% of respondents now feel safer.

Respondents were shown four shopping areas within Torbay, and asked whether they would like to see them fully pedestrianised, given over to pedestrian priority or remain the same. The areas put forward for consideration were the Upper part of Union Street - Castle Circus to Market Square in Torquay (Area A); the lower part of Union Street - Market Street to the Post Office roundabout in Torquay (Area B); Victoria Street and Parkside Road in Paignton (Area C) and the short proportion of road from Torbay Road to the Victoria Shopping Centre (Area D).

Area A - Exactly half the panel (50%) were in favour of change, 23% said the area should be fully pedestrianised and 27% said the area should be given pedestrian priority.
Area B - 33% favoured full pedestrianisation and 27% pedestrian priority, showing that 60% of the panel wanted some kind of improvement.
Area C - 37% favoured full pedestrianisation and 17% favoured pedestrian priority. However, nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) were unsure what steps should be taken to improve this shopping area.
Area D - There was no consensus of opinion for one option over another. Of those who favoured change, 27% were in favour of full pedestrianisation and 15% were in favour of pedestrian priority. Favour for full pedestrianisation was matched by an almost equal number (26%) who wanted the area to remain unchanged.

Respondents were asked to highlight any other streets were they felt improvements could be made. They were also asked to recommend whether changes should be for full pedestrianisation or pedestrian priority. 18% of the panel though there were areas / streets that could be improved (Base - 139 Respondents).

Streets highlighted for full pedestrianisation were: Fleet Walk / Fleet Street (53%) and Torbay Road, Paignton (20%).

Streets highlighted for pedestrian priority were: Market Street (19%); Torbay Road, Paignton (15%); Palace Avenue and Winner Street in Paignton (11% respectively).

Top

Communicating with Torbay Council

Torbay Council is constantly trying to improve the way in which it communicates with its customers. This section of questions was included to help meet this aim.

Nearly all respondents to the first View Point questionnaire (98%) considered it is important for Torbay Council to inform residents about what the Council is doing:

82% said it was very important
16% said it was fairly important

When presented with a list of potential sources of council related information, a sizeable majority said they are presently informed about the Council's activities through articles through local newspapers, the Herald Express (54%) and Weekender (13%). Other sources for council-related information included: Your Torbay (the magazine from Torbay Council) and word of mouth (both 6%).

Top

The Future of Torbay

This section looked at the panellists vision of Torbay in the future.

When asked about their level of optimism, with regards to the future of Torbay, there was a clear divide. Overall 34% were optimistic, 29% were pessimistic and 12% were unsure.

When asked to explain the reasons behind their views, 17% of respondents stated there was a lack of job prospects outside the tourist industry, but 15% acknowledged that attempts were being made to make improvements to the Torbay area and a further 6% felt that the area has many positive attributes.

Top