The department, which deals with activities such as planning, trading standards, environmental health, highways and major new developments, carries out regular customer satisfaction surveys to see if the people they serve are satisfied with the service they receive.

The latest survey showed that the department’s customers are more impressed than ever by the service they receive.

The survey’s results showed that:

• 92% of customers thought staff were knowledgeable about their service,
• 99% thought staff were friendly and polite,
• 97% described staff as helpful
• 93% were satisfied with the service they received.

Paul Dowling, Group Director of Development and Enterprise, says customer satisfaction surveys are an essential tool in identifying how well the department is performing, and whether further actions to improve customer care need to be considered.

“We deliver a range of important services,” he says. ”Everything from issuing planning permission, carrying out hygiene inspections of food premises and tackling rogue traders. So its immensely pleasing that our customers seem to value the services we provide and the way we provide them.

“None of this would be possible without the care and professionalism of our employees. They are the public face of Gateshead Council and the value which the public clearly places on our work is very much the result of their efforts.

“I am pleased that the public clearly value the service they receive and the people who deliver them.

“None of us are complacent, however. There is still more we can do to raise our game and I feel sure these results will encourage us to yet greater effort.”

Councillor Martin Gannon, deputy leader of Gateshead Council, says: “These are tough times for local council employees. There is huge uncertainly about the future and council staff are regularly – and unfairly – pilloried in both parliament and the popular press.

“But look a little closer and you will see a diligent and highly professional workforce delivering quality services to people who appreciate what they do. They do so without fuss and mostly without recognition. That’s the reality in Gateshead, as these figures clearly show.

“I am immensely proud of our Council and the people who deliver its services. These results demonstrate that they are given the means to do the job, they’ll do a great one.”