City Scene - August 2000: Residents can influence Council

August 2000

Birthday Time for Province

Puppy Love

@Stro - Your Globalnet Guide

Attack of the Scum Collectors - Keeping A Watch on Waste

Generator Saved

Children's Festival

Residents can influence Council — survey

Eighty-two per cent of the people who took part in this year's Christchurch City Council annual Citizens' Survey felt they could influence Council decision-making.

Eight per cent said they had the ability to have a "large influence" on Council decisions, 38% said "some influence" and 36% "small influence".

The remaining 18% either didn't know whether they could influence decision-making, didn't have an opinion or didn't think they could have any influence at all.

The National Research Bureau conducted the survey for the Council a few months ago. It involved face-to-face interviews with 755 randomly chosen city residents.

The survey is an important way for the Council to find out what residents think of its performance and provision of services.

A whopping 93% of the respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with Christchurch as a place to live (the same number as last year).

Eighty-three per cent were satisfied with the "look and feel" of Christchurch. When asked why, they responded with a variety of reasons. The main ones were:

It's a clean/ tidy city
It is beautiful/ has attractive gardens/ lots of parks.

Other reasons were that Christchurch has many attractions or activities; it is well laid-out and spacious, and because the Council is doing a good job!

The small percentage of respondents - 9% - who expressed dissatisfaction with the "look and feel" were also concerned mainly with physical aspects of the city, particularly drab and untidy areas, the Cathedral Square redevelopment, and smog and air pollution.

This year's citizens' survey revealed that some residents want more, rather than less, money spent on some services, particularly:

Traffic management
The creation of jobs, and
Development of tourism. In terms of value for money for their rates, they cited the biggest improvements, compared with last year, as being in traffic management, city planning, water supply, entertainment and convention facilities, the art gallery and swimming pools.

However, small decreases were registered in four Council services: environmental regulations, sewage disposal, job creation and refuse collection. Having said this, nearly 90% were happy with the green crate refuse collection service and 80% with black bag rubbish collection.

A key Council spending issue examined this year was the purchase of land for parks and open spaces at the edge of the city. About 60% supported Council spending more to achieve this. For a full copy of the key results of the Annual Citizens' Survey 2000 contact Rex Harrison, project administrator, on 941 8479, or visit our website at http://www.ccc.govt.nz