As rates rise and the economy struggles, resident satisfaction with council governance appears to have dropped.

The results of a 2024-2025 Resident Survey, conducted on behalf of Whakatāne District Council, was presented to its finance and performance committee on Thursday.

Dr Virgil Troy from SIL Research said when looking at the report, environmental context was important.

“Perceptions of councils’ value for money are being shaped by tighter household budgets and heightened sensitivity to any extra costs,” Dr Troy said.

“Over the past 12 months New Zealand’s economy has been under considerable strain as households and businesses adjust to job losses and rising costs.

“Also, the Government has been active on both traditional and social media, critisising councils for their spending and rates increases.”

This, combined with the current economic environment and upcoming elections, had heightened awareness of whether councils were delivering value for money.

Dr Troy said the report’s findings captured “not only service ratings, but also the mood of a community under pressure”.

The survey engaged with 600 residents across the year. Overall satisfaction with council was at 49 percent.

While that was slightly lower than last year’s 53 percent, it was consistent with the benchmark national average of 50 percent.

“What this tells us is that Whakatāne council is in step with broader national trends.”

He said 18 of the 29 services that SIL Research measured achieved satisfaction levels above 60 percent, with six of these over 80 percent.

The percentage of people who would recommend Whakatāne district as a good place to live or visit had "softened” from previous years at 25 percent

“This signals an opportunity to reinvest in community pride and position the district as both a great place to live and an excellent place to visit,” he said.

The highest performing services in terms of resident satisfaction were Te Koputu - Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre, kerbside waste collection, crematorium, sports fields and the Museum and Research Centre.

Lowest rated services were noise and dog control and business, event and tourism promotion.

“Satisfaction with council leadership, communication, and financial management dropped significantly, reflecting growing concerns about transparency and value for money in a fiscally sensitive environment,” the SIL report said.

Deputy Mayor Lesley Immink indicated surprise at the drop in satisfaction around events.

“I felt like we had more events in this last 12 months than the previous two years.

Councillor Julie Jukes said she felt the same about communications.

“We’ve done more communications than we’ve ever done.”

Councillor Nandor Tanczos questioned the value of the survey.

“The surveys tell us what a snapshot of people say. Often it doesn’t match what we’re doing.

"As a result, the survey doesn’t lead to different kinds of decision making, because we’re not sure how much we can rely on the information. Why do the survey if it’s not changing the decisions that we make?”

Strategy and growth general manager Leny Woolsey thanked Mr Tanczos for the observation saying, in governance, “you can never have a complete picture”.

“I think the survey is still valuable because it is one form of knowledge that you can drill into and try to make sense of, but it is also really important that you, as governors, look for opportunities to get other forms of knowledge from different sources as well.”

Mayor Victor Luca agreed the survey had value.

“You have to take into account the limitations of the measurements that you are making and understand strong points and weak points, but I always think it’s better to measure something than measure nothing."

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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