Roading remains Ashburton residents’ biggest gripe despite four out of five survey respondents being satisfied with the council.

Satisfaction with the council’s overall performance increased in the last 12 months from 70% to 73%, the highest it has been since 2021-22 survey, when it was 74%.

It dropped as low as 66% in 2022. Key Research director of research Michael Hooker presented the survey results to the council on Wednesday and suggested the overall increase was linked to improved results around roading.

“Perception of the roading network has quite an influence upon a resident’s perception of overall performance,” Hooker said.

Satisfaction with the unsealed roads was up 8% in the last year to 63%, the first score over 60% since 2012. Sealed roads was up 6% to 38%, having hit a low of 24% in 2021/22.

Hooker noted the levels of satisfaction with roads were higher in Ashburton township than those in the rest of the district.

Even with the increase in satisfaction, roading remained the lowest area of satisfaction, with the influence on council decision making scoring 68%, also a 7% increase.

Among residents dissatisfied with council services, 50% cited roading problems, such as potholes, roadworks, speeding, and parking, while 54% of suggestions for increased spending focused on safer roads, bridges, footpaths, culverts, and cycleways.

Hooker said roading remains a typical “default attribute” and responses to do with value for money were creeping up to be the second highest area of dissatisfaction.

Mayor Neil Brown said it was pleasing to see satisfaction on the up with roading, as “one of the biggest spends”.

“We have been focusing on it for some years, and to finally see it turning is good news.”

The council provided additional road funding in recent years in a bid to catch up on road maintenance, with around $3.5m of unsubsidised funding in the 2025/25 budget- around 7% of the total rates income.

Deputy Mayor Liz McMillan and Councillor Richard Wilson both raised concerns that the survey didn’t differentiate between council-controlled local roads and NZTA-managed state highways.

Council’s facilities and services returned consistently high satisfaction scores - Ashburton Library - Te Kete Tuhinga (97%), Ashburton Domain (97%), cemeteries (97%), and parks and open spaces (95%).

The areas to have the biggest drop, all 3%, were property information services, Council CCTV, alcohol licensing and the council’s involvement in community safety.

Hooker also isolated a trend across the 20 councils Key Research covers that shows the 18-34 cohort is “significantly less satisfied”.

In the Ashburton survey, the 18-34 cohort had a 63% overall performance mark for council compared to an 88% for the 75 and over. The annual survey had 754 respondents and cost $37,370.

View the survey summary here.

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

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