2016 Resident Satisfaction Survey
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SOUTH TARANAKI DISTRICT COUNCIL COMMUNITRAK™ SURVEY FEBRUARY 2016 COMMUNITRAK™ SURVEY PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF COUNCIL SERVICES AND REPRESENTATION PREPARED AS PART OF THE PUBLIC FEEDBACK PROGRAMME FOR: SOUTH TARANAKI DISTRICT COUNCIL FEBRUARY 2016 National Research Bureau Ltd PO Box 10118, Mt Eden, Auckland, New Zealand P (09) 6300 655, www.nrb.co.nz CONTENTS Page No. A. SITUATION AND OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................1 B. COMMUNITRAK™ SPECIFICATIONS .....................................................................2 C. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..............................................................................................6 D. MAIN FINDINGS .........................................................................................................18 1. Council Services/Facilities ................................................................................19 a. Satisfaction With Council Services/Facilities ........................................20 i. Overall Satisfaction ...........................................................................20 1. Control Of Animals ................................................................20 2. Footpaths ..................................................................................24 3. Condition Of Council Roads (Excluding State Highways) ................................................................................28 4. Sewerage System ....................................................................32 5. Stormwater Services, ie, Urban and Rural Drainage .........35 6. Water Supply ...........................................................................39 ii. User/Visitor Satisfaction .................................................................43 1. The Tidiness And Maintenance Of Cemeteries In The District ......................................................................................43 2. The Cleanliness And Maintenance Of Public Halls ...........46 3. Public Library ..........................................................................49 4. Appearance And Maintenance Of Parks And Reserves ...55 5. Weekly Rubbish And Recycling Kerbside Collection Service ......................................................................................58 6. Public Toilets ............................................................................61 2. Rates Issues ..........................................................................................................67 a. Satisfaction With The Way Rates Are Spent On The Services And Facilities Provided By Council ........................................................68 3. Information ..........................................................................................................71 a. Do Residents Know How To Get Council Information If They Want It?........................................................................................................72 b. Main Source Of Information About Council .........................................74 c. How Would Residents Like To Receive Information From Council In The Future? .............................................................................76 CONTENTS (continued) Page No. 4. Local Issues ..........................................................................................................78 a. Which Town Do Residents Mainly Do Their Shopping Or Business In? ................................................................................................79 b. Council Consultation ................................................................................80 i. Satisfaction With The Opportunities Council Provides For Members Of The Public To Participate In Decision Making, If They Wish To .................................................................................80 ii. Does Council Make Decisions That Represent The Best Interests Of The Community? .........................................................82 iii. Satisfaction With The Amount Of Consultation The Council Offers ...................................................................................84 iv. In General Terms, Is Council Moving In The Right Direction? ..86 v. The One Thing Residents Would Like Council To Improve Upon ...................................................................................88 vi. Overall Are Residents Happy With the Service Council Provides? ............................................................................................91 E. APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................92 NB: Please note the following explanations for this report: Figures that are comparably lower than percentages for other respondent types. Figures that are comparably higher than percentages for other respondent types. Arrows, whenever shown, depict a directional trend. In general, where bases are small (<30), no comparisons have been made. For small bases, the estimates of results are not statistically reliable due to the high margins of error. Icons used in this report made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com 1 A. SITUATION AND OBJECTIVES The mission statement for South Taranaki District Council reads: "Council will lead with fairness and integrity, and work to inspire a vibrant and caring spirit of community, while remaining an efficient and sensitive provider of services and facilities." Council has engaged a variety of approaches both to seeking public opinion and to communicating its decisions and programmes to the people resident in the area. One of these approaches was to commission the National Research Bureau's Communitrak™ survey in June/July 1993, June 1995, June 1997, May 1999, May 2001, March/April 2003, April 2005, March 2007, October/November 2008, September/October 2009, November 2010, February/March 2012-2015 and now again in February 2016. The advantages, and benefits of this are twofold ... • Council has the National Average and Peer Group comparisons against which to analyse perceived performance, • Council introduced questions reflecting areas of interest particular to South Taranaki District. Communitrak™ sought to obtain the views of South Taranaki District residents on the specific issue of ... • Council consultation. * * * * * 2 B. COMMUNITRAK™ SPECIFICATIONS Sample Size This Communitrak™ survey was conducted with 402 residents of the South Taranaki District. The survey is framed on the basis of the Wards as the elected representatives are associated with a particular Ward. Interviews were spread as follows: Egmont Plains 100 Eltham 61 Hawera-Normanby 141 Patea 60 Tangahoe 40 N = 402 Interview Type All interviewing was conducted by telephone, with calls being made between 4.30pm and 8.30pm on weekdays and 8.30am and 8.30pm weekends. Sample Selection The white pages of the Taranaki telephone directory and the Waverley section of the Wanganui directory were used as the sample source, with every xth number being selected, that is, each residential (non-business) number selected was chosen in a systematic, randomised way (in other words, at a regular interval), in order to spread the numbers chosen in an even way across all relevant phone book pages. Quota sampling was used to ensure an even balance of male and female respondents, with the sample stratified also according to Ward. Sample sizes for each Ward were predetermined to ensure a sufficient number of respondents within each Ward, so that analysis could be conducted on a Ward-by-Ward basis. A target of interviewing approximately 120 residents aged 18 to 44 years was also set. Households were screened to ensure they fell within the South Taranaki District Council's geographical boundaries. Respondent Selection Respondent selection within the household was also randomised with the eligible person being the man or woman, normally resident, aged 18 years or over, who had the last birthday. 3 Call Backs Three call backs, ie, four calls in all, were made to a residence before the number was replaced in the sample. Call backs were made on a different day or, in the case of a weekend, during a different time period, ie, at least four hours later. Sample Weighting Weightings were applied to the sample data, to reflect the actual Ward, gender and age group proportions in the area as determined by Statistics New Zealand's 2013 Census data. The result is that the total percentage figures represent the population's viewpoint as a whole across the entire South Taranaki District. Bases for subsamples are shown in the Appendix. Where we specify a "base", we are referring to the actual number of respondents interviewed. Survey Dates All interviews were conducted between 19th February and 28th February 2016. Comparison Data Communitrak™ offers to Councils the opportunity to compare their performance with those of Local Authorities across all New Zealand as a whole and with similarly constituted Local Authorities. The Communitrak service includes ... • comparisons with a national sample of 1003 interviews conducted in November 2014, • comparisons with provincial, urban and rural norms. The survey methodology for the comparison data is similar in every respect to that used for your Council's Communitrak™ reading. Where comment has been made regarding respondents more or less likely to represent a particular opinion or response, the comparison has been made between respondents in each socio-economic group, and not between each socio-economic