Huge response to Residents' Survey

12.00.00am GMT Mon 12th Nov 2007

Alex Feakes launched the Perry Vale Residents' Survey in the summer

Local residents in Perry Vale ward have responded in huge numbers to the recent Lib Dem Residents' Survey. The survey asked for residents' views on a range of issues from crime, environment and transport through to health, education and local democracy.

On environmental concerns, residents' clearly feel that the Council should do more to promote energy efficiency locally, and there was a big demand for a bio-degradables collection for garden and kitchen waste. Many respondents also asked for more to be done about climate change, both nationally and locally, and initiatives such as the Congestion Charge in central London were narrowly supported by residents. Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Lewisham West & Penge, Alex Feakes commented: "Nationally, the Lib Dems have proposed a 'Green Tax Switch': moving taxation from income to pollution. This would encourage environmentally friendly behaviour and would allow us to cut in Income Tax by 4p."

A big majority of residents wanted a greater police presence in the ward, which is something that would be achieved by the Lib Dems' campaign for an extra 10,000 more police nationally. Alex said "We would fund the extra police officers by scrapping Labour's unworkable ID card scheme, which the survey shows a majority of residents of Perry Vale do not support."

There is a some concern about the state of the NHS, with a majority of residents being either 'unhappy' or 'very unhappy', though local GP and dentistry services seemed to satisfactory to most. We will be writing to the local health trusts to let them know the results of our Survey so that they can work on any particular problems identified.

Nearly 80% of respondents agreed with Lib Dem plans to scrap university tuition fees. Local residents are in tune with the rest of the UK - this is popular policy nationally, and would encourage able students from less well-off backgrounds to attend university.

At the same time, a majority of residents feel that Lewisham council does not offer value for money. This may be connected to the elected-mayor system in Lewisham, which is only supported by a minority of residents locally.

Your local Lib Dem focus team would like to thank all residents who completed our recent Residents' Survey and let us know your views on local issues. We'll be taking up the issues identified and will report back in future editions of Perry Vale Focus.