The annual residents satisfaction survey results released by the council were drawn from 195 people from a regional population of 24,306.
For the past 10 years the council has run the survey and on the face of it, this year residents were happier than last year. However, responses to the survey were down from 455 last year.
While the survey results showed an overall increase in satisfaction up to 82% from 79% last year, fewer than 1% of the region’s residents responded to the annual survey and of those that did 64% were more than 55-years-old.
Satisfaction level was high in libraries, kerbside recycling, emergency management, council offices reception, public toilets, parks and reserves, noise control and sports grounds with all recording scores greater than 90% — libraries 96%, kerbside recycling 94% – green bin, yellow and blue bin 93%, emergency management (civil defence) 93%, council offices reception 93%, public toilets 93%, parks and reserves 92%, noise control 91% and sports grounds 91%.
Less satisfactory were cemeteries and/or burial process 69%, building consents 65%, environmental health inspections 60% and resource consents 41%.
Most improved from last year were noise control, waste reduction education and customer rates inquiries.
Noise control satisfaction increase nearly 30% from 64% last year to 91% this year.
Waste reduction education was up to 80% from 68% satisfied in 2024 and customer rates enquiries up to 75% from 65%.
The performance of the district councillors was 56%, an increase of 12% from last year.
Those responding to the survey were given the opportunity to rank their top priorities.
The top three were water supply, sewerage and economic development with a three way tie for fourth between footpaths, stormwater and a recycle shop.
Wastebusters’s Alexandra recycle shop closed in 2023 but remained in the survey as people continued to rank it in their top four priorities for the past three years.
Respondents also increased the priority given to council’s elderly persons’ housing units, from 21st in 2024 to eighth equal this year.
Asked if they had any issues with the council, 7% fewer respondents said they had this year compared with last year.
Divided by ward, Vincent residents had the greatest percentage of problems with the council (41% of respondents) and Maniototo the least at 21%. The numbers responding to the question from each ward were Cromwell 82, Vincent 78, Maniototo 14 and Teviot Valley 13.
The top five problem areas across the whole region were council communications, footpaths, parks and reserves, water supply and sealed roads.
Comments ranged from the need for shade sails at playgrounds to needing to ensure developers installed better infrastructure before subdivisions were handed over to council.
Communication could be improved by having consent information completed by a single staff member rather than it being picked up by different people through the process, one submitter suggested.
Mr Kelly said he thanked the community for taking the time to participate.
He hoped to hear from more residents next year, especially those with young families, first homeowners or those new to the district to give feedback on how the council was delivering its services.
"We always want to keep improving. The feedback received will be carefully considered, as there is always room for improvement."
The survey was open for a month from May 28.
According to the council’s commentary released with the survey, the results had a confidence level of +/- 7% at 95% confidence level. Qualtrics define the margin of error as how survey results may differ from real-world results. The smaller the margin of error the better and the smaller the sample size the greater the margin of error.
Council chief executive Peter Kelly said it was worth noting there were a number of other community engagement projects leading up to the residents’ survey —including the long-term plan and Southern Water Done Well.
