Top concerns for Central are planning, water supply

Paula Penno
Paula Penno
There were a couple of ''high achievers'', but the rest were the usual suspects.

Results of the latest Central Otago District Council residents' survey were consistent with previous years, a report on the 2019 survey by council community and engagement manager Paula Penno said.

Water supply was the top priority for most survey respondents, as it has been for three years in a row.

Community planning took top place this year after coming third in the two previous years. But the rankings differed according to council ward.

While water was the most important issue for the Alexandra and Earnscleugh-Manuherikia wards, in Cromwell the top priority was community halls and stadiums.

In the Maniototo, unsealed gravel roads were the top priority, and in the Teviot ward it was footpaths.

The survey attracted 845 responses, and 693 respondents fully completed all the mandatory questions.

Mrs Penno said while there were some ''high achievers'', results for most areas were the same as in previous surveys.

The top three areas for resident satisfaction were health inspections, i-Sites and libraries, and the bottom three were noise control, after-hours service and resource consents.

For the question about positive experiences with the council, customer service and the planning department (building control and Lim reports) got the most ticks - 38 and 22 respectively.

A third of respondents said they had had an issue with the council in the past year. The most common issues were roading (69 comments; about things such as the safety of footpaths and roads being in poor conditions) and waste (52 comments; waste and recycling collection the most common concern).

Almost 100 respondents said they wanted the waste collection schedule changed. Some wanted the blue recycling bins (for glass) and red (for waste) to be collected more frequently

Others wanted more public rubbish bins, and options for disposing of greenwaste; some felt people should not have to pay to dispose of greenwaste at transfer stations.

Sixty-five percent of respondents were female, 35% were male, 16% were under 40, 14% were between 40-49, 23% were between 50-59 and 47% were 60 or over.

Mrs Penno said the number of people under 40 completing the survey had gone down steadily since 2016.

It is the fourth year the survey has been available online.

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