Improved satisfaction with council performance encouraging

Our annual residents’ opinion survey of nearly 400 residents and ratepayers shows a continued improvement in views on Council performance.  The survey was presented at Council’s Corporate Business Committee meeting yesterday.

Overall satisfaction is continuing to improve, with 79 per cent of those with an opinion either satisfied or very satisfied with Council performance and its services and facilities*.  This is an increase from 74 per cent last year and 64 per cent in 2014.

Mayor Ross Church says that feedback from our residents and ratepayers is important to the Council. 

“This latest survey gives us confidence that we’re heading in the right direction,” says Mayor Church.

“We’re committed to delivering on what’s important to our community, and set ourselves targets in many areas covered in our survey.  It’s heartening to see recognition for improvements in services, but we won’t be getting complacent. 

“We appreciate the time that residents take to provide us with their feedback.” 

A new measure on value for money provided by Council rates and fees shows 75 per cent satisfaction.

Another important finding is that 72 per cent are happy with how Council staff respond to issues raised, up from 66 per cent last year.  

“This year we’ve sought more detailed feedback on how we respond to issues, and this will provide an important yardstick for us as we continue to implement our ‘Open for Business’ philosophy. 

“We’re seeing a high level of satisfaction in areas such as the accessibility and helpfulness of staff, and room for improvement when it comes to our speed of response and taking action,” says Mayor Church.

Chair of the Corporate Business Committee Councillor Gavin Welsh says the residents’ feedback on Council’s performance provides context and direction. 

“This will help with our decision-making in the coming year as we work to lift Council performance and deliver on our vision of a vibrant, diverse and thriving Kāpiti,” Councillor Welsh says.

“The new measures included in the survey this year will provide valuable benchmarks to measure ourselves against in the future.  In addition, we’ll shortly be looking at alternatives to improve how we gather feedback, for example with a sample of residents’ opinions sought at regular intervals through the year, rather than in a single annual survey.”

Full details of our resident satisfaction survey are available on our website.

Other findings from our survey include:

• Water  quality continues to be important to Kāpiti residents and there’s a significant improvement in satisfaction with our drinking water, up 17 per cent to 68 per cent.  An improvement in satisfaction reflects the commissioning of the new river recharge scheme, which meant no bore water was used in drinking water this past summer.
• Ease of movement on local roads is challenging in some parts of the district as the Expressway construction continues, and this is reflected in a drop in satisfaction from 67 per cent to 61 per cent. Comments as part of survey indicate optimism that travelling on local roads will improve once construction work is complete.
• There are high levels of satisfaction with Council services such as libraries, swimming pools and cycleways. Satisfaction with our cycleways, walkways and bridleways in particular is improved this year.   

*  Our survey uses adjusted satisfaction scores.  This is the percentage of people that are either satisfied or very satisfied as a proportion of those that expressed a clear opinion on the question.  People who responded that they didn’t know or are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied are not included in this measure.  Full details of all responses are in the Resident Satisfaction Survey 2016 document.