High levels of satisfaction with QLDC

Residents and ratepayers are more satisfied than ever before with the levels and standards of services that the Queenstown Lakes District Council provides, and are extremely proud of their district.

Those are the findings of the Council’s annual survey, which was carried out by independent survey company Carte Blanche. The company sampled the views of 800 residents and ratepayers, using a mixture of postal and on-line surveys and face-to-face interviews.

The results show that overall, 66.9% were satisfied with the performance of Council staff, up from 53.4% last year and the highest level in the last five years. The dissatisfaction level of 8.3% is the lowest level in the last five years.

The highest levels of satisfaction with facilities and services are with parks, reserves and gardens (92.3%) and trails, walkways and cycleways (91.7%). Even public toilets are meeting the expectations of more people than ever before, with 71.9% satisfaction and a drop in dissatisfaction to an historical low of 7.7%.

Swimming pools had an overall rating of 67.8%, with lower levels of satisfaction in Wanaka – the survey was carried out before the Wanaka pool was closed for earthquake strengthening.

Infrastructure services rated more highly with respondents than last year, as satisfaction levels with wastewater (sewerage), water supply, sealed roads and street cleaning all topped 70%.

Satisfaction levels with the Council’s regulatory services have also increased, with more people either satisfied or feeling neutral about services including dog control, parking enforcement, building and resource consents.

Mayor Vanessa van Uden said that the survey reflected the first year of the Council’s new organisation, which brought back together what had formerly been Lakes Environmental, Lakes Leisure into the slimmed-down Queenstown Lakes District Council.

“It’s a very pleasing set of results, which gives us confidence that we are meeting our customers’ expectations in most cases, and delivering the levels and standards of service that our community wants. We still have some challenges. People are telling us that we could do more, or better, in infrastructure – particularly roading, parking, waste collection and footpaths. And the survey also shows that people would like us to do even more in providing recreation facilities, including libraries,” Ms van Uden said.

The results are online at www.qldc.govt.nz and have a margin of error of +/-3.5%.

ENDS

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