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It appears that Rodney is the epicentre of Auckland Council discontent after a recent Council survey found Rodney residents had the least favourable view of Council.
On average, Rodney residents scored Council’s reputation the lowest, at 36, the lowest rating of any local board and nine points below the Auckland average of 45.
The second lowest was Hibiscus and Bays, which gave Council a 38, while the highest was Mangere-Otahuhu, which gave Council a 50.
The survey found significant dissatisfaction with all areas of Council. Only 15 per cent of respondents were satisfied with Council’s overall performance, only 17 per cent trusted Council to make the right decisions, while 20 per cent had confidence Council was going in the right direction.
Those who were dissatisfied with Council’s performance significantly outnumbered those who were satisfied in every measure, with 47 per cent totally dissatisfied with Council’s decision making, 36 per cent totally dissatisfied with its performance, and 35 per cent have no confidence Council is heading in the right direction.
The report characterised the typical Council critic as a male Rodney or Hibiscus and Bays resident who was over 50, voted in elections, paid rates and had “given their opinion to Auckland Council in the last two years”.
Conversely, a Council advocate was likely to be a 15-29-year-old living in the Puketapapa or Whau local boards, who didn’t vote or pay rates and was disengaged from Council.
The report is based on a survey of around 3000 Aucklanders and will be used to inform Council’s ongoing work to improve performance and value for money.
Council will report quarterly on performance measures, including trust in Council, customer service, elected member satisfaction, health and safety and financial management.
Council chief executive Stephen Town says it needs to work harder to earn the trust and confidence of citizens and ratepayers.
“Aucklanders want more visibility of Council decisions and greater confidence that we are focused on the right things,” Mr Town says. “We also need to do more to reach Aucklanders living further from the city centre.”
Rodney Councillor Penny Webster says she is not surprised by the result.
“You only have to look at the debacle with the roundabout (see story p31) to see the issues people have with Council,” Cr Webster says. “Overall the rates in Rodney have gone down, not up and we’ve benefited on big spends in infrastructure. But people have seen levels of service drop off and they’ve lost the local side that we used to have with Rodney District Council.”
She also criticised Council’s “metro-centric” focus, citing the issues with the roll-out of wheelie bins in the region.
“They are not good at communication with their one-size-fits-all thinking. But they are getting better. They don’t understand the differences of people living further out.”
