Satisfaction with Waitomo District Council’s (WDC) services and facilities has risen across most areas, according to their recent resident satisfaction survey.

Each year WDC undertakes a survey to gauge opinions on the performance of Council, measuring satisfaction against performance targets for the financial year.

The results identify where there is scope for improvement which can be factored into planning for budgets and service levels in the future. The survey is also used to measure 12 of Council’s KPIs and is used in the 2023/24 report on actual performance.

Overall, the results of this survey have been very positive. Two measures (communications and library) have remained the same and several other measures have increased in satisfaction compared to 2023.

Chief Executive Ben Smit says it’s important to understand the community’s opinions on Council over the last year as it helps capture how we’re tracking.

“Overall there is a high level of satisfaction with Council’s services. We would like to thank residents for taking the time to participate in our survey,” he says.

“We’re really pleased with the results. We know that our services and facilities play a vital part in our residents’ lives so it’s important we do our best to get it right. Our staff work hard to meet the expectations of the community, so I know they’re proud their efforts have been recognised.”

The survey measures satisfaction across 20 different areas, including roading, water, animal control, council facilities, customer services and communications.

The areas the community were most satisfied were; the Les Munro Centre (98%), safety of landfills and transfers stations (97%), and library facilities (95%).

The survey also identified areas for improvement within the council.

“All feedback is important; it identifies where we need to focus our efforts. We can now use this information to help us as we plan budgets and service levels in the future,” says Ben.

The survey was conducted by Versus Research on behalf of WDC, during May and June. A total of 404 residents took part in the survey, of which 81% are ratepayers.

WDC’s financial and non-financial (activity) performance will be reported on through the Annual Report for the financial year 2023/24.

Council will receive the Annual Report at the October monthly Council meeting. The full Annual Report and a Summary Report will be made available to the public on our website.

Read the full report of the Residents Survey here