THE Barton estate, Oxford, has become a better place to live.

That is the message from estate residents who think work prospects and community facilities have improved.

A questionnaire conducted by the Barton Community Development Project found 52 per cent of people thought the area had improved. Eighty-nine per cent of people quizzed said that safety in the area had either remained the same or got better over the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, 79 per cent of residents said facilities for children and young people had got better in the last year - nobody said facilities had got worse.

People also said they had found it easier to find work over the course of the last year, with only one in 10 people saying they had found the task harder.

Project co-ordinator Alan Foulkes thinks the results reflect an improving estate.

He said: "Clearly, people feel Barton is a better place to live and all the trends shown by the survey are positive.

"The improvement in youth facilities and the play scheme has had a huge impact. There are a number of other factors involved, but I think the Barton Community Development Project has clearly made a difference.

"We recently received a letter from the police saying that the project had made a big difference and overall reported crime has fallen."

The survey called upon more than 70 people to offer their thoughts on the area in February.

The community project was kickstarted in a bid to unearth what people wanted to see in the area and how to regenerate the estate.

The surveyed also found that 60 per cent of people felt the presence of Police Community Support Officers and street wardens in Barton had helped to make a difference.

The only downside was that 26 per cent of people felt that drugs and alcohol problems had got worse over the last year, compared to 23 per cent who thought they had got better.

The survey also comes in the wake of a survey carried out for the police which showed that people's perception of crime on the area had fallen during the course of the last 12 months.