Edinburgh People Survey: Most satisfied Capital residents revealed in survey

YOU can’t get much more satisfaction, it seems, than people in Southside/Newington feel about living in Edinburgh.

While an impressive 95 per cent of residents across the city declared them satisfied with the Capital as a place to live, Southside/Newington ward recorded a satisfaction rate of 99 per cent.

But when it came to satisfaction with their own neighbourhood, it was Morningside that topped the table at 99 per cent while Southside/Newington was down at 93 per cent.

Ninety-nine per cent of Newington residents were satisifed with life in the city. Picture: Neil Hanna

Some 98 per cent of Morningside residents were happy to 
be living in Edinburgh and 97 per cent of those living in Almond, Inverleith, Colinton/Fairmilehead, City Centre, Leith and Leith Walk said the same.

People in Pentland Hills ward – which includes Currie, Balerno, Juniper Green and part of Wester Hailes – were the least satisfied with Edinburgh as a place to live (86 per cent) and also with their own area (71 per cent).

Below average satisfaction rates with their own area as a place to live were also recorded in Sighthill/Gorgie (74 per cent), Forth (78 per cent), Drumbrae/Gyle (87 per cent), Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart and Liberton/Gilmerton (both 88 per cent).

Leith was the ward most satisfied with the council’s management of the city (72 per cent), closely followed by Morningside (71 per cent) and Corstorphine/Murrayfield (70 per cent).

Pentland Hills residents were the least satisfied with the council’s management of the city (55 per cent) with unhappiness also evident in Sighthill/Gorgie (58 per cent) and Almond (60 per cent).

Asked about the council’s management of their own area, Morningside residents emerged happiest (82 per cent) followed by Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart (81 per cent) and Corstorphine/Murrayfield (79 per cent).

Least happy about the way the council managed their area were residents of Sighthill/Gorgie (58 per cent) and Pentland Hills (61 per cent).

When it came to feeling they had a say on local issues and services, residents in Forth and Sighthill/Gorgie were the least likely to say the felt involved (23 per cent) while at the top end of table, 62 per cent of those in Colinton/Fairmilehead felt they had a say.

Southside/Newington Tory councillor Cameron Rose said he thought people in his ward had a positive attitude.

“Edinburgh has a host of natural advantages which make it, if not the, then one of the most popular cities in the UK. I’m not surprised people appreciate living in Edinburgh.”

But he added: “It could be so much better if we sorted out the roads and the bins.”

Steve Gregory, secretary of Morningside Community Council, said good bus services and a vibrant high street were among the reasons people in his area were satisfied with their neighbourhood.

“It doesn’t surprise me that a high percentage of people in Morningside are happy with the place they live,” he said.

“It’s a good place – we have excellent bus connections going through here; the whole run from Morningside Road to Bruntsfield is rather a nice high street, good shops and easily accessible.

“And by and large this is an affluent area, though there are pockets of deprivation, so there is nice housing, a lot of green space and lots of trees.”

On Morningside’s high satisfaction with council management of the area, he said: “I could say it’s the good work done by the community council explaining to people what a difficult job the council has in doing things with reduced resources.

“Some of the biggest complaints we get are about communal bins, but a lot of Morningside has kerbside collections, which in my area at least has been exemplary – so that’s one council service that may have put the figure up.

“And we’ve got some very good parks – Braidburn, Morningside Park, which is small but quite heavily used, and the council does look after them very well.”