QLDC Community Insights Survey results released

The annual Community Insights Survey was conducted in February and March and aimed to provide residents an opportunity to share how they felt about Council’s leadership, governance, communication, engagement, climate and environmental efforts, and facilities.

The independent survey report identified themes the respondents considered could improve resident’s perception of Council. These included: prioritising core services, addressing concerns regarding transparency, equitable investment in facilities across the district, strengthening environmental initiatives, and improving communication and engagement. 

Acting Chief Executive Dave Wallace said feedback in the survey reinforced the Council’s understanding of community frustration with significant change in our District in areas of traffic, roading and parking and challenges with public transport. The Council is continuing to work on progressing the work required to sustain unprecedented growth as swiftly as possible with our partners in Waka Kotahi and the Otago Regional Council.

“Collectively and understandably, this reflects in low satisfaction ratings in the survey. QLDC does not hold all the levers, but we must influence and continue to plan for change. How we move forward will be key to a sustainable future.”

“Where we can take some heart is high satisfaction with community facilities. It’s great to see a result like 85% satisfaction with our trails, walkways and cycle ways. Libraries and parks also score highly.”

“We also see some low scores in terms trust and engagement. We have been working hard to build on these perceptions and have built our engagement through multiple forums, district-wide, including moving our workshops into the public domain. We will continue to work to understand how we can shift this sentiment.”

“In general, local government is a challenging environment with reform, change and fiscal challenges, themes that weave throughout the country, but we also know there have been difficult local decisions. I can say we have a dedicated staff, a highly engaged Council, and a huge amount of care to deliver for our communities.”

This information is helping inform Council decision making and direction.

The Community Insights Survey was conducted by Key Research, an independent market research company that covered all aspects of the survey process, including sampling and invitations as well as the collection of responses.

ENDS | KUA MUTU

Media contact: communications@qldc.govt.nz or call 03 441 1802.

FURTHER INFORMATION | Kā pāroko tāpiri

Read the 2025 Community Insights Survey report.

QLDC trust and satisfaction measurement reporting

• Community Insights survey is the first stage of enhancing QLDC Trust and Customer Satisfaction measurement and reporting.

• Further satisfaction and customer effort measures, including point of interaction surveying, is being implemented through 2025/26.

• Community insights survey and satisfaction measurement is part of a wider customer experience work programme.

• Alongside this, customer experience training is being rolled out across QLDC.

QLDC Customer Experience Framework:

Overview of survey results 

 
Survey methodology

• The Community Insights Survey was conducted by Key Research, an independent market research company who conduct resident surveys for numerous local and regional councils across New Zealand.

• 3,400 invitations were sent to a random selection of residents via a mixed-method data collection approach.

• Residents were selected randomly from the electoral roll with 2,400 sent a postal invite, while a further 1,000 were emailed an invite to participate.

• 445 responses were collected between 25 February and 31 March 2025. 405 responses were selected for reporting, in order to report on a closely representative sample of the District.

• Post data collection, the sample has been weighted so it is exactly representative of key population demographics based on the 2023 Census.

• At an aggregate level, the survey has an expected 95% confidence interval (margin of error) of +/-4.84%.

• The survey was also made available to all residents through a publicly advertised link, collecting 335 responses. However, to preserve the integrity and representativeness of the sample, self-selected responses were not included in the main analysis. This ensures that individuals with particularly strong views aren’t over-represented in the official results. Data from the self-selecting survey is available in the 2025 Community Insights Survey report appendix.

Randomly selecting residents to be invited eliminates potential bias in the responses and provides more accurate data that can reliably be used as a comparison tool for future surveys. This is line with how other councils survey their residents and is considered best practice for gauging community satisfaction, ensuring all demographics are included in the survey process proportionate to their population.