Method

This section outlines the research approach taken for this project, techniques used and processes followed.  A quantitative telephone survey of 513 Far North District residents and 92 of the peer Council residents (30 of Thames-Coromandel District residents, 30 of Opotiki District residents and 32 of Gisborne District residents) was completed between the 7th and 30th of July 2014. 

The average duration of the survey conducted with Far North residents was 16 minutes; while the average duration of the survey conducted with the residents of peer Council Districts was 5 minutes.  

Sample

Telephone numbers for the interviewing were supplied by KMS data, a sample supply company who provide privacy compliant phone numbers from the Telecom White Pages connections. KMS randomly select data cases that fit within the specified sample frame, i.e., people living within the Far North District, via SQL random code. 

Quotas

Sample quotas were applied to wards to ensure that the final sample was proportionately representative to the district overall. 

Weighting

Weighting ensured that specific demographic groups were not under or over-represented in the final data set and that each group was represented as it would be in the population. 

Weighting gave greater confidence that the final results were representative of the Far North District population overall and were not skewed by a particular demographic group. The proportions used for the gender and age weights were taken from the 2013 Census data (Statistics New Zealand).

Questionnaire

The questionnaire for the 2014 Resident Opinion Survey was focused on improving service delivery, only those residents who were dissatisfied with a service were spoken to in more depth to uncover the reasons for their dissatisfaction. This was done to ensure that areas which required targeting were covered in sufficient detail in this research. As such, the questionnaire focused largely on understanding the reasons why residents were dissatisfied rather than elaborating on the reasons they were satisfied.

The peer group questionnaire consisted of key questions focusing on the activity performance indicators set in the Annual Plan 2013/2014.

Analysis - MOE

Margin of error (MOE) is a statistic used to express the amount of random sampling error there is in a survey’s results. The MOE is particularly relevant when analysing a subset of the data as smaller sample sizes incur a greater MOE.