I don't often admit this in public, but I've always been a bit of an amateur psephologist (a person who studies political elections). So, when the national results from the 2006 best value user satisfaction surveys were published recently, I felt a little frisson of excitement as, at last, I could pore over the figures and draw my own conclusions. Sad, I know, but true. From a South Oxfordshire perspective, the news was almost universally good. With a CPA reassessment pending, moving from third to top quartile on overall customer satisfaction was great news, as was increased satisfaction with cleanliness, an area we have prioritised over the last four years. However, some of the most interesting messages are at a broader level. In the context of the current unitary debate in the shires, it is interesting that overall satisfaction with district councils sits 5% above that for county councils, an increase from just 2% three years ago. People also think that district councils keep them better informed than county councils, and provide more opportunities for people to participate in local decision-making. One can only hope that minister Ruth Kelly reads the report that her civil servants have produced, before making any decisions about structures. Some of the other messages are frustratingly consistent. User satisfaction remains much higher among older people than young ones. The council which has cracked this and brought satisfaction among young people up to the level of older ones should patent its ideas. Plenty would be happy to pay for them. More encouragingly, satisfaction across ethnic groups and those with disabilities hardly varies, suggesting we are getting some things right. So there we are. I must now wait another three years before I can once again pretend that I am Ipsos MORI's Ben Page for a couple of days, and wow my colleagues with obscure facts, drawn from the depths of the national user satisfaction survey. In the meantime, CPA beckons... n David Buckle is chief executive of South Oxfordshire DC
