Marlborough District Council has again received a high resident satisfaction score, with 68% of residents saying they are satisfied with the Council’s services. The resident satisfaction survey was conducted between March and June 2021.

Mayor John Leggett said it was a good result considering the challenging year everyone had had.

“Overall satisfaction with Marlborough District Council has remained consistently high in recent years. Although our satisfaction level this year dipped slightly to 68% from 71% in 2020, residents’ satisfaction is noticeably higher than the New Zealand average of 44%. Covid 19 had a pronounced impact across the country, so our scores are particularly pleasing.”

“Three quarters of Council services rated by residents achieved a satisfaction level of 60% or above, with twelve achieving 80% satisfaction or higher.”

“Parks and open spaces, emergency management, drinking water, sewerage and community facilities all scored highly.”

“Resident satisfaction is an important indicator for measuring the public’s perception of Council services. This survey provides a snapshot of our performance, how satisfaction with one service compares to another, and over time demonstrates a longer term trend of how a service is performing, from the perspective of Marlborough’s residents.”

The full report is available on the Council’s website at https://bit.ly/3lUXLix

The survey is run independently each year by SIL Research who ask residents to rate a range of Council services. The results help the Council measure its performance through targets set in the Long Term Plan and reported in the annual report. The researchers noted that the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown restrictions are likely to have had a continued effect on public sentiment this year.

A total of 600 surveys were used in the analysis. Data was weighted to reflect area, gender and age group proportions as per the 2018 Census. The sample size allows a 95% confidence level, +/- 5% when the results are reported as totals. Since 2018, SIL Research has provided a National Council Services Benchmark survey to provide the ability to benchmark their results against a New Zealand average.

Marlborough District Council consistently scores higher than the NZ council benchmark across virtually all of its services.

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