Just a quarter think Wolverhampton is safe for young

Only one quarter of city residents believe Wolverhampton is a safe place for children and young people, a new survey has revealed. The figure emerged in responses to an official questionnaire from Wolverhampton City Council.

Asked if Wolverhampton was a safe place for children and youngsters, 26 per cent agreed it was and 36 per cent disagreed. A further 38 per cent were undecided. Fewer than one in five believe there is enough for youngsters to do in the city or that it is a place where young people can fulfil their ambitions.

The council randomly sel-ected 6,000 households but received just 1,362 resp-onses, a rate of 23 per cent.

Bosses said there was a "national trend for declining response rates which is indicative of low levels of involvement in decision making across the country".

Just over three quarters of people feel safe during the day in Wolverhampton while 38 per cent say they feel unsafe after dark.

Job prospects became residents' top priority according to the survey followed by crime, activities for young people, road and footpath repairs and clean streets.

Improvements in tips and recycling had been noted by 79 per cent of people while 53 per cent of residents said they thought sports and leis-ure facilities had got better.

The council's assistant chief executive Joanne Lancaster said: "It is vital that we listen and act on resident perceptions and customer insight to help improve services and levels of customer satisfaction.

"The findings of this res-earch identify areas where residents are showing inc-reased levels of satisfaction, showing that they think we are getting things right, ho-wever, it also pinpoints ar-eas for improvement which need to be acted upon."

Cheaper or free parking was found to be the most popular suggestion for improving the city centre.

Almost one in three people thought that would bring more people in, followed closely by improved shopping facilities.

Just 11 per cent thought the city centre's safety needed to be improved.