Whanganui District Council community views survey results fall below planned targets

Overall, 80 per cent of respondents rated their standard of living as good or extremely good. Photo / Bevan Conley

The latest community views survey from Whanganui District Council has revealed results that don’t meet its Long Term Plan (LTP) targets.

It is delivered annually and primarily measures satisfaction with council services and facilities.

In 2022, the sample size was capped at 515 to be comparable with previous years.

Overall, 80 per cent of residents rated their standard of living as good or extremely good, down from 85 per cent in 2021, and 81 per cent of residents said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with living in Whanganui, down from 84 per cent.

Thirty-two per cent of residents rated the council’s response to the community’s needs and issues well (29 per cent) or very well (three per cent), both a decrease from 2021.

Council policy manager Elise Broadbent said the survey was only available online in 2022.

Previously, it had been done via phone calls.

“We promoted it really broadly to the whole community and received over 650 responses,” Broadbent said.

“With all that in mind, the demographics were still skewed to those over-65 and New Zealand European.”

Around two-thirds of respondents were male (336).

Twenty-nine per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the performance of the mayor and councillors, down from 45 per cent in 2021.

The LTP target for 2022 was 50 per cent, a number councillor Charlie Anderson said was “pretty sad”.

He said the goal should be 100 per cent.

The figure was based on previous trends and had always been relatively low, Broadbent said.

“We are in a time where I think it would be very difficult to achieve 100 per cent, but I do like your ambition.”

The most popular cultural activity was using a library, at 51 per cent, while only 18 per cent attended the Royal Opera House and 29 per cent used the Sarjeant Gallery (Sarjeant on the Quay).

The council’s LTP set a target of 40 per cent for those using or visiting an event at Cooks Gardens in 2022, but only 19 per cent said they had.

A 60 per cent satisfaction with sports grounds was below the 80 per cent target in the LTP.

There were gains in emergency management satisfaction, up one point to 92 per cent, and feeling safe at night in the CBD (central business district), up two points to 58 per cent.

The results were in line with other surveys undertaken by Versus around the country, Broadbent said.

Council chief executive David Langford said the survey was just one piece of feedback data from the public.

“We also have the point of view surveys, the smiley-face iPads at the front counter; there are 20,000-odd service requests coming in every year and a number of complaints.

“What we’ve tried to do is pull that sum total of feedback together and take a holistic approach to what our community and customers are telling us we need to do more of because they like it, and do less of or differently because they don’t like it.”