The Otago Regional Council has picked out 14,000 randomly selected ratepayers to take part in a community survey.

ORC chair Hilary Calvert said the survey will start appearing in mailboxes this week, and will help shape the future of services.

“In these uncertain times, it is even more important to know as much as we can about what people in Otago feel about what the Otago Regional Council is doing well and what we can do better. This will help us be the very best council we can be in the time we have left.”

By switching from cold calling phone numbers to the hard-copy mail-out format ORC hope to prompt an increase in overall responses, and the survey will also be available to anyone interested via a Facebook link, as a cost-effective alternative.

General manager strategy and customer, Amanda Vercoe said public input is really important to ORC, “which is why we carry out regular community surveys to understand how people across Otago view the council, its role and work, their understanding of our services and their perceptions of environmental factors.”

 “The surveys help track changes over time, highlight what matters most to communities throughout Otago, and shows us where projects, programmes or monitoring are working well or need improvement.”

Householders’ receiving the survey have until February 22 to respond.

Amanda said while people will be aware central Government is proposing a wide range of reforms affecting many aspects of regional council governance and work programmes, those reforms will take time to legislate and implement.

“In the meantime, ORC still has a job to do on behalf of the public and environment with services to deliver. This includes existing protections around water, air and land monitoring, ongoing consenting responsibilities, engineering work over multiple flood schemes through to preparing for emergency management situations.”

Amanda said looking across the most recent community surveys some clear patterns and key issues have been highlighted.

• Most people know ORC manages Otago’s natural resources, but awareness is lower among younger people and non-ratepayers
• Water quality remains the biggest environmental concern across Otago
• Climate change is becoming a more important issue for more people
• Views of ORC improve most when work is visible, such as flood protection projects
• Many people still want clearer communication about what ORC does and why

“The survey results will help inform decision-making, improve services, and meet accountability and transparency expectations.”

While councils are required under the Local Government Act 2002 to report on performance and outcomes, community surveys are one of the key tools ORC uses to support this reporting.

Link to survey