Council conducts residents survey

29 August 2007

Residents' survey results

Council conducts residents survey

The Christchurch City Council’s endeavour at collecting serious feedback from its residents came with the bonus of high satisfaction ratings in its first survey for 2007.

The Council received high satisfaction in drinking water quality and supporting leisure and sporting activities. Other areas receiving positive ratings included drinking water taste and water pressure, the Botanic Gardens, sports facilities, and parks and open spaces. Recreational activities were highly rated, as was satisfaction with library services and the art gallery.

"The extremely high satisfaction rating we received shows the residents are aware of the Council’s stance on maintaining a high standard of urban lifestyle for them," says Council Chief Executive, Tony Marryatt.

Christchurch’s cultural ambience did very well with the community libraries, Central City activities and the Art Gallery scoring high, as they have consistently in past surveys.

"A low rating in the cultural, sporting and recreational segment would impair the quality of urbanisation and the urban sustainability, as well as the overall quality of life," says Mr Marryatt.

On the whole the residents approved of much what the Council was doing for them, expressing an overall satisfaction rating of 79 percent (satisfied or very satisfied) with Council’s services.

The Council has opted to run resident surveys twice a year so that it can keep a finger on the community pulse and make changes if a service is not performing to community expectations.

The survey results also point out some areas for improvement. These include traffic flow during peak hours, processing of resource consents and building permits, storm water removal, conditions of roads, footpaths and street lighting and parking in the CBD.

Area residents called for improvement in the Mobile Library, rubbish collection, road congestion and traffic control.

"We need to make our service delivery exceptional without making Christchurch an expensive place to do business," says Mr Marryatt of the main focus for the Council

The survey was designed by international market research company AC Neilsen and conducted by Opinions Market Research Ltd. The survey covered a representative sample of 770 Christchurch residents aged 15 years and over. It tests resident satisfaction with the services set out in the Long-Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).

This survey, and earlier ones, are available at www.ccc.govt.nz/residentssurvey.

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