Good Scores For Staff, Buildings, Information, Consultation In Survey

A snapshot of Tararua public opinion has endorsed the council’s staff performance, community buildings, community consultation and published information ranking them above the national average and a peer group of 34 rural councils.

The results come via a National Research Bureau Survey commissioned by the council and were also benchmarked against previous surveys.

The survey involved over 450 residents, with proportional numbers for each township, the rural areas, and wards, and asked questions relating to the main aspects of council activities.

These were satisfaction with council services and facilities, rates issues, contact with the council, information, representation and local issues.

In council services and facilities, community buildings scored 91% compared with 72% for the rural peer group and 65% for the national average; other results ranged from 86% satisfaction for libraries and parks and reserves, both on a par with rural peers but below the national average.

Roading had a mixed result scoring a 79% satisfaction rate with sealed roads, better than the 2005 survey and similar to all the benchmark groups, while 57% were satisfied with unsealed roads, which was also similar to the benchmark groups.

Similar to the rural peer group were footpaths (64%), stormwater drainage (60%), and landfill management (58%), but all were below the national average.

Water availability at 44% scored the worst, reflecting summer drought issues and the February timing of the survey. Along with the Dannevirke Town Centre Street refurbishment and the associated perception that rates were spent mainly in Dannevirke, this was the biggest single issue

Other issues included rates increases and the fair allocation of rates, economic growth, employment and sewerage system upgrades.

In a “thumbs up” the performance rating of staff at 67% was significantly higher than the peer group (60%) and the national average (59%).

Likewise, sufficiency of council information provided was encouraging at 72% and above both benchmarks.


 

Chief executive Roger Twentyman was pleased with most aspects of the survey results. However, he said there was plenty of work to do and the aim was to listen to the messages, work hard at meeting community expectations and aim for consistently better results.