Community Life

Launched in May, local people were asked about what improvements they wanted to see in made in their area and how it should be funded.

An initial response taken from the online survey shows that the majority of people, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not favour implementing new charges or taxes to raise future revenue. Many preferring the sale of council land instead as a possible revenue source.

Cllr Linda Huggett, Deputy Leader of Redbridge Council, said:  "This was an innovative approach to involving residents in thinking about the long-term future of the borough and about some difficult choices faced by the council. The excellent response has shown that this unique consultation has paid off.

"From the early online responses it looks like people are seeing school improvement as their biggest priority and that they will be prepared to consider land sales to fund it. However we need to analyse all of the results to find out exactly what local residents really think."

However, with a population of just over 250,000 in Redbridge the number of responses still only accounts for 2% of the borough's population and cannot be seen as completely reflective of what people living and working in Redbridge think or want.

Furthermore, it may be some time before residents see any drastic changes either since many of the investments will be made over a five year long period. But with the council preparing itself to invest over a £100 million to improve local services over the next few years the idea behind it has been to get more of this money into services that matter most to local people.

Full results from the online and paper surveys will now be consider by a joint committee made up by all party members who will have the final decision on how and where money is spent.

Let us know what you think about Redbridge Conversation. Email me at kulwant.sohal@bbc.co.uk