There has been a 10 percentage points (one in ten) drop (from 71% to 61%) in the proportion of residents who think that Barnet Council is trustworthy in just six months according to the Council’s latest official Residents’ Perception Survey (Autumn 2016 survey compared to Spring 2016 survey).

In total, just over a quarter of respondents to the survey (26%) now do not think Barnet Council is trustworthy.

There was also an increase of 6 percentage points in residents who now do not know if they trust the Council (13% – up from 7%) and an increase of 2 percentage points in residents saying they do not trust the Council very much/not at all.

The headline summary of the survey suggests the fall in trust may be linked with perceptions of quality of pavements.

There are also indications in the survey that attitudes to libraries may also have contributed to the fall in trust. The proportion of respondents rating Libraries Good-Excellent decreased 7% since Autumn 2015, and amongst library users specifically the fall was 16%.

Overall, less than half of residents responding to the survey now rate libraries as good or excellent (49%).

The Autumn Residents’ Perception Survey was conducted in November 2016, and the Spring Survey was conducted in April and May 2016

Cllr Barry Rawlings said “I’m not surprised that there has been such a dramatic fall in trust – when we speak to residents on the doorstep we regularly hear how let down people feel by the Tories running Barnet Council.

“In the briefing on the survey we were told that dissatisfaction with the quality of pavements and libraries may have contributed to this decline in trust – and that certainly rings true when you speak to people – they are very angry about the massive cuts to libraries, and the way the Council is handling pavement repairs.

“They must be embarrassed about this, and I’ll be very interested to see how they spin this. The Tories are very complacent, so it’s definitely time for a change.”