Council improving, says residents survey

26 November 2007

Overall residents’ satisfaction with Christchurch City Council services remains steady with 75% of a total 770 phone participants, aged 15 years and over, saying they were generally satisfied with Council.

Residents indicated that the areas they wanted Council to prioritise were: road congestion; rubbish and recycling collection; revitalisation of the central city e.g. tidy up and increase security; improve road conditions/ poor footpaths/ street lighting/ trees, and resource consents/ building permits.

The September 2007 Biannual Residents Survey, which is the benchmark on performance guiding adjustments that Council must make to improve services, was the second held this year of a biannual survey series - last carried out in March.

Each year the Council surveys Christchurch residents on customer satisfaction and residents’ perceptions of city issues. The Annual Survey of Residents was conducted by Statistics NZ from 1991 to 1997, the Natural Research Bureau Ltd from 1998 to 2004, and Opinions Market Research Ltd since 2005.

The Council moved to a biannual survey basis this year to better suit information needs and changes in the legislative environment.

In September, 770 residents aged 15 years and over were asked to respond to various questions about Council services – were they satisfied or unsatisfied with these services. Of these, 75% said they were satisfied as Council services had changed little since March.

Overall, the results were the same as in March with little, if any, change.

Council Chief Executive, Tony Marryatt, said that, overall, residents seemed quite happy with the Council continuing business as usual, tempered by a need to keep a close eye on the top five areas, such as road congestion, listed under their top priorities.

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