Palmerston North City Council seeks ways to address growing dissatisfaction, image problem

Fewer than half of respondents to the annual residents' survey are satisfied or very satisfied with the performance of the mayor and councillors. Photo / Palmerston North City Council

The Palmerston North City Council is set to run a promotional campaign highlighting the work it does.

It is in response to two residents’ surveys that found a growing number of people are dissatisfied with the value for money the council provides. They are also dissatisfied on issues of trust, leadership, and financial management.

The campaign will be in place by December, allowing it to feed into the events season and show ratepayers where their money goes.

Tauranga-based Key Research received 536 responses to the 2023 survey.

People were randomly selected from the electoral roll and posted an invitation to an online survey with a hard copy back-up.

Respondents were most satisfied with walkways and shared pathways, parks and reserves, kerbside rubbish and recycling collection, and libraries.

They were least satisfied with roads, the ease of moving around the city at peak times, and footpaths.

The survey found there has been a big drop in perceptions of safety. In the 2019, 2020 and 2021 surveys, more than 70 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Palmerston North was safe. This dropped to 59 per cent in 2022 and 43 per cent in 2023.

The survey is done in quarterly waves so it is not affected by one-off events.

Last December, elected members asked officers for a report “in the first half of 2023″, with options to address the key challenges identified in the 2022 survey.

The report, which was ready for the September 6 meeting, lists ways to raise awareness of the role of elected members and the services and operations of the council.

Officers were partway through writing the report when the 2023 survey results arrived.

Councillor William Wood said understanding among residents of what the council does is lacking, particularly among young people.

“They don’t know who we are, they don’t know what we do, and they don’t know how we are different from central government.”

Wood advocated a council-led, apolitical civics education programme for young people.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you don’t know what somebody does or what an organisation does, you are not going vote for them, you are not going to be interested in them.

“And when we have young people think we run schools, police and hospitals, they are not going to be engaged with what councils do. They don’t understand the roads, the waters, the parks, and the community centres.”

Councillor Rachel Bowen said she made no apology for the “shameless self-promotion” that goes on her social media. It was important to connect with the community and help them understand what the role of an elected member is.

“But the risk in that is it looks like we just go to a lot of events and openings and it doesn’t really talk about the bigger issues the mayor was mentioning around infrastructure and our work on those big-ticket items.”

Bowen supported Mayor Grant Smith’s call for a newsletter to be sent with the rates notices.

Referring to voter turnout of just 39 per cent in the 2022 local election for Palmerston North, Smith said the council needs to focus on more than just schools. It also needs to use service clubs, marae, businesses and sports clubs to get its message out.

There needed to be a greater understanding of the different roles of central and local government, he said.

“I don’t know how many times I’m asked to fix immigration settings. Yeah, great, I’ve got a lot of sway in that area.”

Smith told officers they didn’t need to wait for long-term plan deliberations to hold focus groups.

Elected members requested officers bring back an action plan for the 2023 survey results.