Media Release

Residents happy with Council's performance

The vast majority of South Taranaki residents are happy with the way the council spends money on district services and facilities according to an independent survey.

The National Research Bureau (NRB) telephone poll of 402 residents across all five South Taranaki wards found that 79% of residents were very/fairly satisfied with the way rates were spent on council services and facilities, 15% were not very satisfied and 6% did not know.

The survey showed satisfaction was up 10% on last year's result and is 15% better than resident satisfaction in similar sized councils across New Zealand.

The survey, which has been conducted regularly since 1993, allows the South Taranaki District Council (STDC) to assess its performance and compares residents' views with those of other districts around New Zealand.

Council services and facilities which residents were most satisfied with were parks and reserves (92%), LibraryPlus (87%) and the recycling service (80%). The areas of greatest dissatisfaction were with roads (19%) and foot paths (19%).

Approval of the politicians' performance also improved with 70% of respondents saying they thought the Council makes decisions which represent the best interests of the community, 5% up on 2009, with 15% who did not know.

Council CEO, Craig Stevenson, says he was very pleased with the results of the survey although there is still room for improvement.

"Councils are, by their very nature, targets of intense scrutiny and criticism, so it's very pleasing to see the majority of our residents are happy with what we do," says Mr Stevenson.

"I know how passionately our staff work for the people of South Taranaki and we are continually looking at ways we can lift the bar in terms of performance," he says.

The district wide telephone survey was conducted using random selection method by the National research bureau over November 2010.

ENDS

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