Road rage is driving you mad in the city

But satisfaction with the way that the city council manages the city surged by 21 per cent, to almost three in every five people.

The Edinburgh People's Survey, based on more than 5000 face-to-face interviews with Capital residents, has found that 88 per cent of people rate themselves as satisfied with the city as a place to live, four per cent lower than a year ago.

Satisfaction with most aspects of city life had declined compared with last year, with the biggest drops seen in the way violent crime is dealt with and the city's library service and public transport.

However, satisfaction has increased when compared to 2007 in all but five of the 27 service areas surveyed. Areas where improvements were reported over the last year included the availability of recycling and the way that the council delivered value for money.

Mark Turley, director of the council's services for communities department, admitted that the improvement in perceptions of how the council is managing the city could have been partly influenced by the survey being taken at a time when the tram project had been less prominent on the news agenda than it had been a year earlier.

He said: "The number of people satisfied with the council has gone up when it had been going down, which is largely attributable to the tram project.

"When we have asked why people are dissatisfied, about 60-70 per cent have said the trams. But this survey was done in October 2010 and maybe, to a certain extent, people had got fed up talking about trams."

The new Edinburgh People's Survey combines two previous surveys of residents' perception of council services - the Edinburgh Residents Survey and the Annual Neighbourhood Survey.

Uncertainty at the time of the survey being taken about what public sector spending cuts lay ahead has been blamed for the rise in people who said they didn't know whether they were satisfied or dissatisfied with a range of services.

The council has started to make savage cuts as it attempts to find 90 million of savings over the next three years. But Mr Turley insists spending cuts should not be an excuse for council standards falling.

He said: "The analysis of council budget reductions suggested that around three quarter of them were back office, which is painful for us but should not be too painful for customers.

"We want to save 90m but we spend 1 billion a year - the challenge is to spend wisely.

"When you look at these results, we are still doing really well and most figures are good over the four-year period, so we do not think we need to be despondent.

"Some of the figures about how satisfied people are about living in Edinburgh are still very high and people still clearly do like to live here."

The council's top priority should be ensuring the city has a strong economy, according to the survey findings, followed by reducing crime and disorder, creating more affordable homes to rent or buy, ensuring a clean and attractive city and providing residential care and support at home for those who need it.

One of the biggest declines in satisfaction was with maintenance of roads, where satisfaction levels slumped by 10 per cent in the last year, to 52 per cent.

But Mr Turley said: "Until 2009, we saw an increase in satisfaction levels that was consistent with national surveys into disrepair, with the number of Edinburgh's roads in disrepair declining from 50 per cent to 33 per cent.

"Between the 2009 survey and the 2010 survey, we had a severe weather experience. Over Christmas and New Year 2009/10, our roads took a real bashing and we think that is why we may have seen a reduction."

Libraries also saw a big decline in satisfaction levels, from 67 per cent in 2009 to 44 per cent in 2010, although four in every five people who say they are regular users of the service say they are satisfied with it.

Some findings from each local area will now be sent to neighbourhood partnerships, who will draw up localised action plans to address any issues.

Council leader Jenny Dawe insists the report reflects a positive view of the council.

She said: "I am pleased that public confidence in the council's ability to manage the city has increased hugely since the last survey.

"Even better news is that only seven per cent are dissatisfied, compared to 36 per cent over the same period. There are many factors that may have led to these results, but key is delivering good value, keeping people involved with budget decisions and communicating well with the public."