This year 760 randomly selected people took part in the Council’s annual survey of residents. The questions ranged from how often they visited one of the City Council’s libraries to how satisfied they were with Council services.

Some highlights from the survey:

• 92 per cent were satisfied with Christchurch as a place to live, work and spend spare time in. In previous years, from 92-94% have said they were satisfied
• 83% were satisfied with the way Christchurch looks and feels. This result has varied between 77% and 83% in previous years. Respondents gave many reasons why the felt this way, the main ones being the city’s cleanliness, its over-all attractiveness, its gardens and its parks. Those who were less than satisfied tended to mention the Square and traffic congestion
• 66% of those interviewed agreed with the statement “I like to know what the Council is doing, but I’m happy to let them get on with it”, while 44% said they would like to have more say in what the Council does
• Respondents were asked what were the best things the Council had done for Christchurch in the last few years. Responses were many and varied, but many had to do with the city’s environment – parks and gardens (7%), recycling (6%), landscaping streets and other beautification (4%). Other items mentioned were events and festivals (6%) and bus service improvements (4%). There was a host of other responses
• Opinions on the worst things they thought the Council had done were more definite, with the changes to the Square (19%) and changes to rubbish collection (7%) predominating
• Respondents were then asked what they thought the Council should do over the next few years. Most mentioned was fixing traffic congestion (9%), followed by reducing air pollution (7%), moving the discharge of treated sewerage from the estuary to an ocean outfall (5%), improved parking (4%) and improved public transport (4%)
• Half the people questioned said they visited the City Centre once or more a week for reasons other than work. This is up from 45% in the previous two years
• Litter (26%) and graffiti (35%) continue to be seen as problems. This is similar level of response to previous years
• Dangerous or drunk driving was mentioned as a problem by 58% of respondents. This is up from 48% in 2001 Roading and traffic were seen as sources of problems for 24% of respondents, up from 16% in 2001
• The city's parks continue to be regarded as one of its most attractive features. People surveyed were satisfied with parks as places to play sports (76%), for casual games (86%), for picnics (85%), for family outings (87%) and as places for children to play (79%)
• Dogs in parks attracted a range of opinion: 51% enjoyed parks without dogs, while 43% said they were satisfied parks were suitable for exercising dogs
• Parks were seen to be well looked after by 91% of respondents. Results over the years have varied between 88% and 93%