Give your views on ‘Your Buckinghamshire’ magazine

Since the launch of Buckinghamshire Council in April 2020, the Council has produced three editions of the ‘Your Buckinghamshire’ magazine. These were published in October 2020, March 2021 and November 2021.

We undertook a survey between 17 December 2021 and 16 January 2022 to understand whether residents enjoy the magazine, find it useful and informative, and how often they would like to receive it.

We received 168 responses to the survey. The vast majority of those who responded either lived or worked in Buckinghamshire, and the age of respondents was evenly spread from 16 to 80 years of age.

The key findings are summarised below:

• 73% had heard of the magazine.
• 57% had read at least one edition of the magazine.
• Most popular current topics covered in the magazine are (in order of popularity): recycling & waste, local news and community events, community safety, library news, planning updates, and transport news.
• A majority found the magazine to be either ‘quite informative’ or ‘very informative’.
• A majority said they would like to see the magazine published four times a year. The second most popular response was that they did not want to receive the magazine at all.
• Asked how they currently receive news and updates from Buckinghamshire Council, the top three responses were (in order of popularity): Our website, our social media channels, and our e-newsletters.
• Asked how they would like to receive news and updates from Buckinghamshire Council, of 13 options the top four responses were (in order of priority): Our website, our social media channels, our e-newsletters, our Your Buckinghamshire magazine.

Alongside the survey, we undertook a benchmarking exercise to understand whether other Local Authorities produce a printed magazine and, if so, how often they are produced. We also reviewed resource and cost implications, as well as our duty to ensure we communicate information about Council services to all residents, some of whom may not have access to the internet.

Taking into consideration all of the findings, we will produce another two magazines (Summer 2022 and Christmas 2022) before reviewing our approach again.