2013 Report

In 2013, Council contracted Opinions Market Research Ltd to undertake a resident satisfaction survey to measure community satisfaction with the Grey District Council and its services. These results were compared with the survey done in 2011 as well as benchmarked against some other NZ Councils.

A telephone survey was carried out in August 2013 of 350 Grey District residents over the age of 18 and this year we also asked some perception of quality of life questions to use in measuring the success of our Community Economic Development Strategy in the future.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the survey. The complete report is available to read below.

Documents

Resident Satisfaction Survey - September 2013 (PDF, 2MB)

Agenda item for Resident Satisfaction Survey - December 2013 (PDF, 122KB)

Highlights

Highlights from the report include:

• 87% of those who contacted Council offices are extremely, very or quite satisfied with the overall service they received (this level of satisfaction is around the average for the group of Councils)
• 79% of residents are extremely, very or quite satisfied with the overall performance of Grey District Council over the last 12 months (this is slightly higher than the group of Councils on average)
• 83% of residents are extremely, very or quite satisfied with the performance of the Mayor and Councillors (this is higher than the group of Council's average)
• Awareness of the services that the Council provides is generally high
• The most common reasons for contacting the Council are dog/animal control/dog registrations (32%), building/planning/resource consent/permits (30%) and rates (23%)
• Residents prefer to receive information from Council through the quarterly newsletter (55%), letter/bulk mail out (53%) or in the newspaper (49%)
• 91% of residents who have their rubbish collected by the Council are satisfied that their rubbish/recycling is collected on time
• The majority of residents (91%) agree that the District is a great place to live, with 46% agreeing strongly with the statement

Council and its management are very pleased with the results of the survey, especially the fact that Council achieved strong results in virtually all aspects of its service delivery. There were some areas where levels of satisfaction had decreased from 2011 or lower than expected - Council will work on identifying why that has happened and what remedies or actions could be put in place for future improvement.