Residents across the district are to have their say on how Bradford council's benefit service is performing.

Around 1,000 people who have recently applied to the council for council tax or housing benefit will be picked at random over the next few weeks to complete a customer satisfaction survey.

It's all part of the Government's Best Value initiative, which requires all local authorities to improve the quality of service they provide to the communities they serve and to make sure it is efficient, effective and good value for money.

The survey, which will look at accessibility, staffing and communications, is the first step towards this, as it will help the authority to provide the type of service and support customers really want.

Results from the survey will be sent to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions so that they can be compared to levels of customer satisfaction from other local authority benefit services.

Cllr Richard Wightman, executive member for corporate affairs, says: "We owe it to all council tax payers in the district, not just those who use the benefit service, to ensure that we provide a high standard of service which is also good value for money.

"I would urge everyone who is sent a questionnaire to respond to it as this is the best possible way of finding out how the council is performing, and what improvements or changes would be necessary to provide customers with the type of service they want," says Cllr Wightman.

"Responses will be treated in the strictest confidence and we hope this will make it easier for people to give a fair and honest assessment of the service."

This is the first stage of the process and the questionnaire will be sent out to a further 1,000 people in January, 2001.

The results will be available from next spring on the council's web site, as well as public benefit inquiry points throughout the district.