Your County magazine was revamped in spring 2005. We carried out a survey in the spring 2005 issue which asked residents what they thought about the magazine.
Results
Over 750 residents replied and the results showed the magazine was well written and designed and the stories were useful and interesting. A report on the findings is available to download below.
We organised two focus groups in February 2005 to assess council publications in general. When discussing Your County, residents at the focus groups made the following points:
- the magazine was an effective way of communicating to residents
- councillors names and photos should be shown
- stories need to be written in simple language that is accessible to all
- budget information needs to be presented in simple terms.
A separate consultation about council spending in January 2005 showed that residents wanted clearer and simpler information about the council’s budget and which council provided which local services. A full report about this is available on our page about Council tax 2005/06.
Impact
Following this feedback, we included clear information about our spending, local service providers and information about councillors in the summer 2005 issue.
We also achieved an Approved Plain English Campaign crystal mark for writing and design clarity. The Plain English Campaign commented in their assessment of the summer 2005 issue:
"Once again you have produced an excellent magazine which is bright, lively and very well written. I was impressed by your feature ‘Who provides your local services?’. Not only is this an example of the County Council listening to what residents want, it also explains a quite complex structure very clearly and simply.”
We will continue to ask residents what they think about our magazine. As part of a questionnaire on our budget this autumn, we are asking our 1,500-strong residents’ panel for their views. We will use the findings from this survey to make further improvements.
East Sussex County Council