Waitaki Residents' Survey

Note: If you have received a letter from Key Research advising that you have been randomly selected to participate in our Residents’ Survey, we thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey.

If you are unable to complete the survey online, or would prefer to complete the survey on a hard copy, please contact Key Research on 0800 501 015 to request that they send you a hard copy version by post.  You may be asked to provide your 5 digit Survey ID that can be found on the top of your letter.

If you are happy to complete the survey online, make sure that you type the link to the research correctly.  It is a long link to type in and it is case sensitive.  Once you have entered the link correctly, you will be asked to provide your survey ID number which is the 5 digit number on the top of the letter that you received.  Once those two keys steps are done, you are well on your way.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback.  We appreciate your support.

Residents' Survey

The Residents’ Survey is part of a range of activities that Council completes to provide information about performance and service delivery agreed in the Long Term Plan.  The results of this survey are measured against performance targets and are reported in the 2021-22 Annual Report. The survey also serves as a way that Council can receive the views and opinions from the community on the services that we provide.

We normally contact 400 people each year to respond to a series of questions, traditionally via telephone.  This year the sample size was increased to 800 as two different methodologies were carried out concurrently to allow for a trial of a postal to online method.

The residents were contacted by phone or by the postal to online method between October 2021 and June 2022.  The results were then compiled and analysed by Key Research, and presented in the report attached below.

2021-22 Residents' Survey results

The report indicates that COVID has impacted Council’s services across the district.  Staffing shortages, both Council staff and contractors, has affected delivery of some services including road maintenance and rubbish collection.  Most Council’s across New Zealand that Key Research conduct the Annual Residents’ Satisfaction Survey for have recorded decreases in overall satisfaction, perceptions of services and facilities as well as image and reputation measures.

Overall, the perception of Waitaki District Council remains on par with last year’s results.  Satisfaction with Council’s performance slightly declined to 60%, however Waitaki District Council has an acceptable overall reputation benchmark score of +77, though this is a slightly lower score than 2021 (+81).  Some measures remain at high levels for example levels of satisfaction with the district’s Libraries and the Ōamaru Opera house remain at over 90%, and satisfaction with parks and reserves in the district has reached 90%.  There have also been significant increases in levels of satisfaction with Council-owned Lakes camping grounds (up by 14 percentage points), and the unsealed roading network (up by 6 percentage points).

The key priorities identified in the report for improving overall perceptions of Council’s performance relate to:  Perception of Leadership, How rates are spent on services and facilities, and Rates being fair and reasonable.

We welcome you to read the full report at the link below.