ORC to conduct public awareness survey

ORC is to conduct a survey of residents in Otago to gauge their awareness of the council and its activities, and how satisfied they are with the services it provides.

The survey, which will run until April 28, will be carried out by Tauranga-based Key Research Group.

A telephone survey of 900 people will be complemented by an online survey which people who want to complete it can do so by accessing the ORC website (www.orc.govt.nz).

ORC chief executive Peter Bodeker said the survey was the first of its kind the council had embarked on. It would focus on public understanding relating to the council’s role in the sustainable management of water, land, air, and public transport.

Exploring people’s understanding of the organisation and their view of what was important for the council to focus on was an important means of helping to guide the nature and direction of its future activities, Mr Bodeker said.

The initial survey would be done across the region and results would be broken down according to the five local authority districts within it.

It will aim for a spread of respondents across main urban areas, townships, and rural areas, and across various age groups

“We want to gauge the degree to which the community both understand our role and how well they rate the services we deliver,” Mr Bodeker said.

“We hope as many people as possible will complete the online survey, because that will help us make decisions about service provision, community engagement, communications, and activity planning and implementation, and help us prioritise these activities,” he said.

Mr Bodeker said the survey results will be available later this year and would complement the feedback the council gets from ratepayers and residents through consultative processes such as the Annual Plan and the Long Term Plan.

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