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Restive residents of Dunedin have given their council a blunt review — just a quarter of respondents to a survey are satisfied with the performance of the city’s mayor and councillors.
That is down from 40% a year ago.
The Dunedin City Council itself was given a wholesale slating, recording declining levels of approval across a slew of services.
Overall satisfaction with the council dropped 14 points to 40%.
Support for community boards also waned, satisfaction with their performances falling 12 points to 32%.
The rating given for value for money from council services and activities fell 10 points to 32%.
The unflattering assessment was provided by 1287 survey respondents between July last year and June this year.
Dunedin Ice Stadium, the Lan Yuan garden, community pools, the sewerage system and the Edgar Centre all recorded increases in satisfaction.
Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said contentious debates about important issues could skew public perceptions of elected officials.
Much of their work was carried out diligently and in a collegial fashion, he said.
Council chief executive Sandy Graham said the council was working hard to lift performance.
"We know this has been a tough year for everyone, and to some extent that frustration is borne out in these results, but our focus is on improvement," she said.
Satisfaction with roading-related infrastructure remained flat at 29%.
Ratings were highest for ease of pedestrian movement, followed by street lighting and the flow of off-peak traffic.
Respondents were least satisfied with the availability of parking in the central city, availability of on-street metered parking in the central city and traffic flow during peak times.
Satisfaction with cleanliness of streets was down 16 points at 48%.
Satisfaction with the look and feel of the central city retail area was down 14 points at 51% — it was unclear if the drop reflected a vote of confidence or disapproval regarding the planned George St upgrade.
The Dunedin Botanic Garden, council reserves and walking and biking tracks received high satisfaction ratings.
The services and facilities residents were most satisfied with were the Otago Museum, the botanic garden, Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, libraries and the Regent Theatre.
However, less than half of respondents were satisfied with public toilets.
Residents who registered a score of 1-4 were considered to be dissatisfied, those who gave a rating of 5-6 were considered neutral and those who gave a rating of 7-10 were satisfied.
For the question about the performance of the mayor and councillors, 25% were satisfied, 27% neutral and 48% dissatisfied.
On the positive side, Dunedin was widely considered to be a great place to live.
However, negative themes included that the council was spending money in the wrong areas and it did not listen to the public enough.
Maintaining infrastructure and more parking were considered top priorities.
A greater focus on the environment was also in the top three.
Councillors will consider the survey results at a meeting next week.