COUNTY residents will find it easier to examine the quality of services by making suggestions on postcards at libraries and customer contact centres.

Worcestershire County Council's scrutiny and overview team has long invited members of the public to submit ideas for scrutiny reviews to see if there are any ways the council can improve.

Now, to encourage residents to let councillors know which services need to be reviewed, special postcards have been created and will be made available in the council's 23 libraries.

The postcards will also be on display on the customer contact centres, which are run in partnership with the district councils.

Members of the public are asked to write their suggestions for scrutiny exercises on the postcards and put them in the collection points provided. Information posters will also be on hard so residents know a little more about how scrutiny works, and what they should and should not expect to happen.

Coun John Buckley, chairman of the committee, said: "We've recently completed scrutiny exercises that we know are prominent in people's minds, such as public transport, which councillors found a recurring subject during the elections last year, and healthy eating in schools, which we were looking at long before Jamie Oliver arrived on the scene.

"While these were important issues for residents, they were themes that we as councillors brought to the table.

"What we're really hoping for is an idea for scrutiny that is suggested by a member of the public, so that we know that the work we do genuinely counts in the eyes of our residents.

"That's why we're putting these postcards into public buildings so that it makes it even easier for council taxpayers to tell us the services they'd like us to look at."

Any member of the public interested in the overview and scrutiny function of the county council can call the team on 01905 766916 or e-mail scrutiny@worcestershire.gov.uk