Auckland Council's $90,000 survey 'a waste'

Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance representative Jo Holmes slams $90,000 spend on Auckland Council survey.

Auckland Council wasted $90,000 to reveal only a tiny minority of Aucklanders are satisfied with its performance, the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance says.

Alliance spokeswoman Jo Holmes said if the council wanted to know how unpopular it was they could have picked up a newspaper, not paid $90,000 on a Citizens Insights Monitor measuring council's trust and reputation.

The research found only 17 per cent of Aucklanders trust council to make the right decisions and only 15 per cent are satisfied with council's performance.

"Instead of wasting money on canvassing whether residents mistrust them, the council should be focused on providing good services to their local community," Holmes said.

She said those who rated the council's reputation poorly were people who voted and paid rates. Those who rated the council highly did not pay rates.

When the results of the research were released in June, the council acknowledged it needed to improve on demonstrating accountability and effectiveness to improve its reputation among Aucklanders.

Labour MP and mayoral candidate Phil Goff said the result showed satisfaction with the council's performance was at "rock bottom".

He has promised to rebuilt trust and confidence in council if he is elected mayor.

The $90,000 figure was obtained by the alliance and show the money was mainly spent on project design, marketing and analytics.

A council spokesperson said the survey was "to help council provide better services to Aucklanders, by understanding more about their experience as citizens, ratepayers and customers."