The results are in and Marlborough District Council has again received a high resident satisfaction score, with 71% of residents saying they are satisfied with Council services. The full survey, which is run independently each year by SIL Research, is available here

Mayor John Leggett says satisfaction with Council services and facilities has remained consistently high in recent years.

“The satisfaction level decreased slightly this year to 71% from 73.8% last year. The impact of COVID-19 and the uncertainties it has created are a likely contributor to this. Almost all our community facilities were forced to close their doors during lockdown.”

“However many of our most important services performed well, with residents rating 37 out of 50 (74%) of Council services at a satisfaction level of 60% or above.

“When benchmarked against other councils, I’m very proud to say most Marlborough District Council service scores are higher, with many significantly higher, than others.”

The Council’s top-rated services in 2020 were:

· Parks, reserves and open spaces (7.7 out of 10 or 88%)

· Emergency management (7.6/10 or 84%)

· Cemeteries (7.6/10 or 86%)

· Library services (7.6/10 or 83%)

· Swimming pools (7.6/10 or 86%)

· Drinking water supply (7.5/10 or 83%)

“Sports fields, harbours, sewerage, solid waste, the Resource Recovery Centre and walk and cycle ways also scored highly. The biggest satisfaction increases this year were for biosecurity and bus services.”

“I’d like to thank our hard working councillors, staff and contractors for all their efforts over the last year - it has been a challenging one for everyone but we have all contributed to a very good result.”

The survey was conducted via telephone, online and postal survey between 19 June and 31 July 2020. Most services have targets for resident satisfaction that are set in the long term plan and reported on each year in the annual report.

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