Residents proud to call Waipa home

8 October 2014Waipa is the place to be. That's one of the key findings from Waipa District Council's latest annual residents telephone survey.

95% of Waipa residents would promote the district as a good place to live and for the third year in a row, more than 90% are satisfied / very satisfied with the quality of life.

The survey asked residents about their levels of satisfaction around Council's services, the biggest issues they thought were facing the district and their feelings towards the district in general.

Of the 401 residents surveyed, residents were happiest with the district's:

• parks / reserves
• road safety
• recycling services.

The biggest issues facing the district were employment (21%), environmental issues (18%), and education (16%). For Council specifically, the biggest issues were water supply (16%) and roading (16%).

The lowest levels of satisfaction were with swimming pools (24%), stormwater (22%), footpaths 19%) and water supply (18%).

The residents survey provides Council with information on the use of and satisfaction with Council provided facilities and services, overall attitudes, and community needs and priorities.

For Waipa District Mayor Jim Mylchreest the results are proof of what he already knew.

I already knew that Waipa is a great place to live but it is great to have it confirmed and to see that the community agrees!

This survey has been running for more than 20 years and provides us with valuable information. Responses to the survey enable us to measure our performance against the community's expectations and identify what we're doing well and where we could do better.

The annual phone survey has been carried out since 1992 and feeds in to key Council publications such as the Annual Report. The survey is carried out by the National Research Bureau and is run by a variety of councils across New Zealand.

For more information please contact Natalie Palmer on 027 807 3174.