In 2007, the Local Strategic Partnership appointed Norma Wilburn Associates to carry out a survey into Sedgefield Borough residents' quality of life. Data was collected in relation to the following topics;
Responses were collected from 2,456 residents across Sedgefield Borough, this makes up approximately 3% of Sedgefield Borough's total population. The questionnaire used in this survey is available to download at the bottom of this page. The main findings from the survey have been detailed by theme below.
When asked ‘how strongly do you feel you belong to each of the following areas’ – Neighbourhood, Area, Sedgefield Borough, County Durham, England and Britain, respondents were most likely to refer to having a strong sense of belonging (very or fairly strong) to ‘England’ (83.4%), and ‘Britain’ (80.3%). Whilst substantial majorities also felt a ‘strong’ (very or fairly) sense of belonging to ‘County Durham’ (73.2%), ‘Neighbourhood’ (71.6%) and their ‘area’ (69.9%), just over half (51%) felt a strong sense of belonging to ‘Sedgefield Borough’.
Approximately three-quarters (74.1%) of all respondents expressed ‘satisfaction’ with their ‘neighbourhoods’ as a place to live, this fell to 67.9% in relation to their ‘areas’, and to only 55.4% with ‘Sedgefield Borough’. However, dissatisfaction with all localities was generally low – ‘neighbourhood’ (11.8%), ‘area’ (14.2%), and ‘Sedgefield Borough’ (15.6%).
The majority of all respondents felt that ‘they know a lot of people in their neighbourhood’ (59.6%), that ‘many of the people in their neighbourhood can be trusted’ (54.1%), and that ‘their neighbourhood is a place where neighbours look out for each other’ (52.4%), only 23.8% were of the view that ‘residents in their neighbourhood work together to resolve local problems’.
Local Decision Making
A majority (58.5%) of all respondents agreed with the statement ‘by working together people in my neighbourhood can influence decisions that affect the neighbourhood’, whilst 21.9% ‘disagreed’, and 19.5% gave ‘don’t know’ responses.
The great majority (92%+) of all respondents reported feeling ‘safe’ when in their own home’ (‘during the day’ and ‘at night’), and whilst ‘out walking during the day’ (‘in their local neighbourhood’ or ‘local town centre’), just over half (57.2%) reported feeling ‘safe’ when ‘walking their neighbourhood after dark’, and only 38.1% reported feeling safe ‘walking in their local town centre after dark’.
18.7% of respondents who are able to walk described their daily activity as ‘usually sitting and don’t walk about much’, whilst 49.1% ‘stand or walk about quite a lot but do not have to carry or lift things often’, 25.6% ‘usually lift or carry light loads or have to climb hills or stairs often’, and 6.7% ‘do heavy work or carry heavy loads often’.
Just under one-in-five (19.6%) of all respondents described themselves as ‘current smokers’, whilst 33.8% stated that they were ‘ex-smokers’, and 46.7% that they had ‘never smoked’.
Only 14% of all respondents ‘never’ have a ‘drink containing alcohol’, though this varied significantly with age, rising from less than 10% amongst ‘under 45 year olds’, to 35.7% of ‘75+ year olds’.
Thank you to all who contributed to the survey.
The full Quality of Life Survey 2007 report can be downloaded below.