MEDIA RELEASE

September 25 2008

Residents tell Council more improvement needed

Rodney’s residents say the Council is lifting its game but still needs to keep on improving – particularly in terms of customer service around building and resource consent processes.

These results come out of the Rodney District Council Annual Residents’ Survey for 2007-08, which was presented to Council at its meeting on September 25.

“This survey shows a modest improvement compared with last year,” says Mayor Penny Webster.

“However, it also highlights that while many residents are satisfied others also had some issues in relation to dealing with Council and we must keep improving our levels of service.”

Mrs Webster says while the Council’s overall performance is rated higher than the previous year’s survey, these latest results show there are still some significant opportunities for improvement.

Only 22 per cent of those surveyed, who paid residential rates, thought they received good value for their rates. However, satisfaction with the Council’s leisure centre, service centres and libraries rated very highly.

According to the survey the key issues Council should be looking at this year include roading and traffic, as well as town planning/development and growth. There were also concerns expressed about rating levels, while the upgrading of facilities was also high on peoples’ minds.

Meanwhile, the survey respondents have again rated Rodney highly as a place to live.

“The results from our planning and building services show there are some serious issues with how Council provides and delivers in these areas to our customers,” says Rodney District Council chief executive Rodger Kerr-Newell.

He says while both the resource and building consent processes have shown improvement on the previous survey – these services are still rated much lower than the other services provided by Council.

“These areas – along with the rest of the organisation – are focussed on significantly lifting levels of performance and service to our customers during the coming year,” Mr Kerr-Newell added.

A summary of the 2007/08 Annual Residents Survey is available on the RDC website www.rdc.govt.nz .

ENDS

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