Bay people happy with their lives

Nine out of 10 Bay of Plenty residents say they’re happy with their lives, according to a three-yearly survey on the region’s progress in achieving its Community Outcomes

The Community Outcomes Survey 2010 is a joint, region-wide telephone survey of 15,000 people conducted by the region’s local authorities, led by Environment Bay of Plenty with support from a number of other local authorities. The survey results were provided to last week’s Environment Bay of Plenty’s council meeting.

The survey is designed to measure people’s perceptions of progress towards achieving community outcomes. The results reflect the community’s current perceptions of their quality of life and progress of the community as a whole, rather than council performance. Questions were selected to report against community outcome indicators listed in Environment Bay of Plenty’s Ten Year Plan.

Environment Bay of Plenty Chairman John Cronin said the results were interesting and provided councils and authorities in the region with a good snapshot of how the community is going.

“Generally results have been positive and demonstrate that our community is in a good place, and that we achieving what the community expects of us in relation to some key areas of work,” Chairman Cronin said.

More than nine out of every 10 people – 92 percent - said they were very happy (43 percent) or happy (49 percent) in general. Only one percent indicated they were unhappy. The overall level of ‘general happiness’ in the Bay has increased by four percentage points since the 2006 study.

When questioned about the environment, more than 84 percent of people thought the overall state of the natural environment in the Bay was good or very good. Forty percent said the overall state of the natural environment was improving, while another 39 percent thought the environment had stayed the same.

Participants felt pride, connected to and safe in their community, particularly during the day. More than three-quarters of respondents – 79 percent - said that they felt ‘a sense of pride in the way my local area looks and feels’. The majority, 86 percent, said it was important to feel a sense of community with people in their local neighbourhood, and most felt people across their neighbourhood worked together and supported each other.

On safety issues, almost all, 96 percent, felt safe during the day at home or in their own neighbourhood, but almost half felt unsafe in the city centre after dark. More than 80 percent agreed that they found it easy to walk around their local area, an increase on the 2006 result, and more than half found it easy to cycle – 15 percentage points higher than in 2006.

About half of people thought public transport was safe, affordable, comfortable and convenient – but just under a half didn’t know or said the question did not apply to them.
Few residents were prepared for a civil defence emergency. Only 44 percent said they had an emergency preparedness kit ready to last their household for at least three days. More Eastern Bay residents were prepared than those in Tauranga, and residents over 60, and those who had lived in the Bay for more than five years were better prepared.

More than a third of people said cultural diversity made their area a better place to live, while more than half said it made no difference.

When questioned about what they knew about their local councils, the survey found understanding of and confidence in Regional Council decision-making had increased by six and seven percentage points from the 2006 study.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they understood how their Council made decisions, and more than half had confidence that the council made decisions in the best interests of the area. Half said they understood how the Regional Council made decisions, and slightly more than half had confidence that the decisions were in the best interests of the Bay.

Understanding of how their local council made decisions increased by seven percentage points from the 2006 study, however confidence in local council decision-making dropped three percentage points.

Eight out of 10 felt they could influence making their community a better place to live, 13 percentage points higher than in 2006, and just under two thirds would like to have more of a say in what their local council did. Thirteen percent felt the public had no influence on local council decisions, while three quarters said they could influence decisions.

Almost two thirds felt they had enough information to enable them to participate in decision making about the future of their local community if they chose to.

On health care issues, more than nine out of 10 had no issues with accessibility of emergency health care, half said they were active every day and more than half rated their own health as either very good or excellent.

The results of the survey will be included in Environment Bay of Plenty’s three-yearly Community Outcomes Monitoring Report, scheduled for release in 2012.

ENDS

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