Nelson City Council

Satisfaction levels high

Nelsonians are embracing the city’s water supply, parks and open spaces, its libraries and even its sewerage, according to the annual Residents Survey.

Background

This year (and every three years) a comprehensive survey was undertaken to establish relative priorities among the significant activity areas for Council and measures the level of satisfaction with Council performance in each of these areas. This information helps in the preparation of the annual plan and asset management plans and provides feedback for the annual reporting process.

Within the three year cycle, a more focused survey is undertaken annually to provide detailed feedback in one or more significant activity areas and/or in specific areas identified by Council.

A telephone survey of 400 residents was held in September. Opinions were sought on:

• How important Council activities are and how satisfied residents are with Council services
• Residents’ views on library services, including which Library services are most important and what would encourage non-users to use the library
• Residents’ views on Council involvement in community facilities.
• Use of parks / reserves for active versus inactive recreational activities.
• Usage of Council’s kerbside recycling and barriers to residents using the service.

Strengths in key activity areas

Since 1998 there has been a significant increase in the level of satisfaction for many Council activities.  In 1998 nine of the Council significant activities were scheduled as a priority for improvement.  With improvements made since this time this has decreased to three.

Through analysing the importance and satisfaction of the Council’s key activity areas, residents have identified a number of strengths:

• Parks and open spaces (the area with highest satisfaction)
• Water supply
• Sewerage systems (which showed a significant increase in satisfaction)
• Waste management (also showed a significant increase in satisfaction)
• Emergency management (although a number of residents were unable to rate this, indicating a lack of knowledge of Council activities in this area)
• Stormwater and flood protection
• Recreation

While these are all activity areas where satisfaction is relatively higher than in previous surveys, they are also areas where importance is relatively higher.  Council needs to maintain these levels of service.

Three areas require improvement

Transport

This research identifies Transport as the top priority for improvement amongst Council’s 14 key activity areas. It is also in the top five most important activity areas.  Over the past three years satisfaction with this area has fallen significantly. More than half of residents are dissatisfied with performance in this area, and about half rate it as the area they are most dissatisfied with.

There are some common themes causing this dissatisfaction

• Public Transport - residents desire a better, cheaper and more frequent service.
• Congestion – residents believe that encouraging the use of public transport and improvements in roading (eg improving arterial routes) will help relieve congestion.
• Carparking – Many (about half) are dissatisfied with this area, in particular they believe there is insufficient parking in the city 
• Some see improved air quality as a common goal across Transport and Environmental management.

However there were areas in the transport activity that had a high level of satisfaction including walkways, cycleways, cycle lanes, street lighting and footpaths.

Community Facilities

This activity area is identified by this research as being slightly below the level of satisfaction that Council aims for and this year, compared to 2004 shows a decrease in the level of satisfaction. The main comments made by those residents who were not satisfied were:

• A perceived lack of facilities – stadium, theatre, arts centre, venue(s) to cater for large crowds
• Existing facilities are in need of upgrading and renovation. This theme came through strongly in relation to the Trafalgar Centre. 

Areas where there were higher levels of satisfaction include the city’s swimming pools.

Environmental Management

Environmental management is the third (and final) activity area slightly below the level of satisfaction aimed for by Council.  Although it does not appear to be an area where residents have undue concerns, they appear relatively less positive about this area.  The main areas of concern relate to:

• Air quality
• Water quality
• A perceived lack of long term planning
• A need to protect the environment for future generations.

Sewage Disposal

On a more positive note, sewage disposal remains an important issue in the minds of Nelson residents and the level of satisfaction with Council’s work has improved over the last few years.

Public Toilets

As in 2004, most are satisfied with the locations of public toilets, however, some continue to be dissatisfied with how many there are and cleanliness is an issue for some.

Libraries

Virtually all residents had positive views about the Library service. Twelve percent of residents indicated they do not use the libraries. Dissatisfaction with the library service is not a major reason for not using them – it seems safe to conclude non-users lack compelling reasons to use the library.  By and large, non-users couldn’t think of anything that would encourage them to use libraries.  Residents indicated that keeping collections up to date, and maintaining a good range of materials, are probably the main things to focus on for the near future.

Recreation in Parks and Reserves

Most residents have visited a park or reserve in the past 12 months, almost eight in ten having done so for active recreation. As would be expected, those who undertake active recreational activities are most likely to be visiting weekly or more often, while those visiting for less active purposes (e.g. family picnics) do so monthly or less often on average.

Recycling

Most residents claim to use the Council’s kerbside recycling service. Amongst the small proportion who don’t (one in ten), the reasons for not using it relate to not being convinced it’s worth the effort or claims of do-it-yourself recycling.

Contact

If you would like further information, please contact Manager Strategy and Planning on +64 3 546 0364.