Annual community survey shows room for improvement at Whanganui District Council

The survey revealed a jump in users of the Royal Whanganui Opera House. Photo / Bevan Conley

The annual community views survey has produced a mixed scorecard for the Whanganui District Council.

Respondents were asked to rate their satisfaction with council services and facilities.

Areas that dropped by 5 per cent or more from last year were: satisfaction with the standard of presentation of the town centre, feeling safe at night in the CBD, satisfaction with animal control services, finding the council website easy to navigate, the performance of the Whanganui Rural Community Board, and control of litter.

Satisfaction with council staff increased by 18 per cent from 2022 and there were more people using council venues.

The number of respondents who had used the Royal Whanganui Opera House moved from 18 per cent to 35 per cent and Cooks Gardens was up from 19 per cent to 24 per cent.

Policy adviser Elise Broadbent told a council strategy and policy committee meeting that Covid-19 continued to have “a long and deep impact on all of us”

“These results, particularly in the last two years, have come in the context of that, coupled with the economic situation and rising rates.

“Talking with other councils, results in terms of satisfaction are dipping across the country.”

The survey was open online between May 15 and July 9 this year, with a sample size capped at 510 people to be comparable with previous years.

Broadbent said phone surveys had been done away with last year because they doubled the cost and only reached a certain demographic - the older population.

This year’s survey cost $12,000.

Thirty-one per cent of respondents this year rated the performance of the mayor and councillors as good, with 3 per cent saying it was very good.

That is a 5 per cent overall increase from 2022.

Chief executive David Langford said council roles such as berm mowing, vegetation control and roading activities were on “a long-term trend downwards” in terms of customer satisfaction.

“We need to prompt the question - are we doing what we said we would do under our levels of service?”

Broadbent said council staff would consider and incorporate the survey results as part of the Vision for Whanganui strategic work.

Vision For Whanganui will eventually replace the council’s Leading Edge Strategy.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.