Council interim chief executive Mary Richardson said resident's overall satisfaction level is sitting at 46% for 2023/24, a small improvement on last year’s 43%. The number of service areas residents had a high level of satisfaction with has also increased.
"Significant challenges remain for us – feedback shows that dissatisfaction is highest in the areas that require the most capital investment to address at a time when the council is facing major budget challenges and residents are telling us they do not want to increase rates," Richardson said.
"The residents survey results demonstrate the difficult decisions the council has to make given the, at times, conflicting resident perceptions and priorities."
The survey results come from "point of contact surveys" done throughout the past year with 9014 council customers and an online general service satisfaction survey with a representative sample of 771 people under taken in January.
The services with the highest levels of satisfaction were those in which residents had direct contact with council staff who they see as approachable, knowledgeable and helpful.
This included customer services, libraries, recreation and sport centres, waste management, the Botanic Gardens, Hagley Park and Mona Vale, cemetery administration and partnership approval services, resource consenting and education programmes.
The kerbside waste management system had the best result, followed by parks and libraries.
"While at times our residents express conflicting views and perceptions on how our services are performing, they are clear in their expectation that we will address the issues they raise," says Richardson.
"Over the past year we have concentrated on making changes targeted at improving our service levels. We are beginning to see improvements in some areas and we will continue to respond to our residents’ feedback."
More services scored in the higher satisfaction category (85% or higher) this year, at 44% of all services, up from 28% last year. These included community events and facilities and regional parks presentation.
Satisfaction with the resource consents process saw a 15% improvement, to bring it into the higher satisfaction service list for the first time, and a third of services improved their satisfaction ratings by more than 4%, including stormwater management, wastewater and water supply reliability and responsiveness and footpath condition.
View the full results at ccc.govt.nz/residents-survey
