MORE money needs to be spent combating vandalism and dog fouling in the Isle of Man.
That's according to an online survey - Keep Mann Tidy: Word on the Street – which was conducted by the Department of Infrastructure.
The department set up the survey, which ran between July 6 and September 6, to obtain the public's perceptions on the current state of the Island.
161 Island residents responded to the survey as well as three visitors.
Results show that vandalism and dog fouling were voted as the two issues that needed more money spending on them and dog fouling and poor road conditions were voted as the two most problematic issues in the Island.
In terms of the Island's appearance 74 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the appearance of the national glens, 31 per cent were satisfied with the Island's beaches and 54 per cent were happy with the parks.
34 per cent of respondents said they felt dissatisfied with how problems affecting the appearance of their local area were dealt with.
Infrastructure Minister David Cretney MHK said: "We know how important the quality of the local environment on the Isle of Man is to residents, businesses and visitors and we want to ensure that we are providing the best possible service within the limited resources we have available.
"This work gives us an objective measure of our performance for the first time and also informs us of how the public see the priorities.
"I have always believed that street cleaning in local areas is best managed by the local authorities and with the help of these surveys we hope to be able to target our resources more efficiently and prioritise our spending to ensure the Isle of Man is a cleaner, greener and safer place to live, work and visit."
The Department of Infrastructure also employed ENCAMS to conduct a Local Environment Quality Survey where surveyors travelled around the Island to objectively survey and assess the environment.
This enabled the department to make use of benchmarking comparisons with towns in the UK.
The full reports of both surveys can be found by clicking here.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) in the House of Keys Onchan MHK David Quirk will ask the Infrastructure Minister how much the ENCAMS survey and assessment cost.
