How is your Council Performing?

Far North District Council (Council) conducted a community feedback survey in July 2011. This survey identifies and measures the perceptions that residents of Far North District (residents) have towards Council and the services it provides.

Specifically this survey aimed to:

Measure satisfaction levels with Council services and facilities
Identify usage levels of Council services and facilities
Identify awareness and impression of Council communications and consultation processes
Measure satisfaction levels with Council performance
Gather feedback on local issues

Interviewing for the survey was carried out via telephone (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) in-house at Versus Research during mid July 2011. A total of 400 residents were interviewed from Far North District and a sample of 30 residents from each of the peer districts was interviewed. The findings from the survey have been analysed by Ward (Northern, Eastern and Western).

Services / Facilities

Overall, Council's service delivery across a variety of services and facilities is fairly consistent and resident satisfaction across a range of services and facilities is similar to the 2009 result. Especially, community satisfaction with public libraries (currently 78%) and recycling services (currently 72%) show a substantial increase. However, services and facilities that show a decrease in resident satisfaction this year are: sewerage system (87%); footpaths (55%); access to beaches (66%); boat ramps and jetties (47%); playgrounds (60%); public toilets (58%) and animal control (54%).

A summary of the key results, and Council's Key Performance Measures (KPM), is given in the tables below:
Please note:

When Council refers to "Not specified" this relates to a measure not included in the LTCCP 2009/19. This means Council developed additional questions to measure service delivery for other activities e.g. cycleways, communication and building consent and inspection experience;
Key codes have been used to identify measure performance vs. target in 2010/11:

  has improved

  neutral

  needs improving

Building and resource consent services

Overall, 8% of residents mentioned that they have applied for a building or a resource consent in the past twelve months. Of these residents 61% of residents are satisfied or very satisfied with their most recent consent application experience and 71% are satisfied or very satisfied with their most recent inspection experience.

Contact with Council

A total of 46% of residents mentioned they have contacted the Council in the past twelve months. Resident satisfaction ratings for customer service are on par with the 2009 result and remain fairly positive. 73% of residents¹ are satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received when they contacted the Council. 'Council's 24 hour 0800 service'; telephone contact (excluding the 0800 number) and visits to a Council office or service centre are the most frequently used methods of contact. Furthermore, 'rates related queries' (19%); 'dog / animal control' (17%); and 'roads / footpaths' (14%) are the top three reasons for contacting the Council. This result is similar to the 2009 result.

Emergency Management

51% of households in the District have an emergency response plan and 56% of households have an emergency response kit in case of a civil defence emergency. These results are similar to the peer council group however, only 29% of residents mentioned they are aware of the Community Response Plan for civil defence; the peer group average for this measure is 63%.

Peer Council's similar to Far North District Council

In order to gauge how well Council are performing on key measures relative to peer Councils, a sample of residents from peer districts, i.e., Thames District, Gisborne District and Opotiki District were also surveyed.

Services and facilities that show a lower peer group average when compared with Far North District are: water supply; sewerage system; roading network; footpaths; cycleways; access to beaches; boat ramps and jetties; playgrounds; public swimming pools; cemeteries; stormwater drainage; recylcing; refuse disposal and animal control. Services and facilities that show a higher peer group average when compared with Far North District are: the parks and reserves; public libraries and public toilets.
This year, residents were asked to rate their overall satisfaction with Council provided services and facilities and 76% of residents mentioned they are very satisfied or satisfied with these services compared to the peer group Councils average of 86%.

About Service Performance