All time low for Wellingtonians' pride in their city

Wednesday, 3 July 2024

Half of Wellingtonians believe the council is not making decisions in the best interests of the city.

Overall, residents are not satisfied with the decision-making process used by the Wellington City Council – 50% were dissatisfied and just 20% were satisfied.

Mayor Tory Whanau said it was good satisfaction had improved from a low of 12% in 2022, but there was “still more to be done”.

“We are committed to further improvement through initiatives like the recent Citizens’ Assembly and further work around ensuring voices from all communities are incorporated into decision-making.”

Pride in the way Wellington looks and feels reached its lowest point in the past decade, at just 50%. The finding was accompanied by falling numbers of residents who feel safe in the central city.

“With collaboration, community and compassion, we can make our city safer for everyone,” Whanau said.

The council was committed to that through the Pōneke Promise and had increased the number of grants available for safety initiatives in the city.

The highest concern from residents was alcohol and drug problems followed by aggressive and threatening behaviour, with more than 80% of residents listing these concerns. Three-quarters of respondents said aggressive begging was a concern too.

The city council pointed out that over the past three years, crime victimisation reports had increased 12% in the city centre, but that was relatively low compared with other cities in New Zealand.

Some of the positives in the survey were directed towards council facilities and transport. More people were finding it easy to travel around the city by bike, 41% and public transport, 58%.

Iona Pannett said it was great to see satisfaction with the council’s core facilities and improvements to sustainable transport.

As an inner-city resident, she felt safe and believed that the numbers on safety reflected the perceived threat rather than the actual situation.

“Our problems in the city are not because of poor lighting or homeless people, they’re because of booze culture, misogyny, homophobia, and racism,” she said.

Tim Brown said that given the council had been making difficult decisions, “any increase in public perception is good”. More work would be required to rebuild trust with residents.

Ben McNulty, a councillor in the most dissatisfied ward – Takapū/Northern, where only 9% of residents were satisfied – said the results were “completely unsurprising yet disappointing”.

Residents of the northern suburbs had every right to feel dissatisfied at proposals to cut community facilities, even if they had eventually been taken off the table.

“This survey puts all 16 elected members on notice that we are fundamentally not meeting the expectations of the city we represent,” McNulty said.

Diane Calvert said it was disappointing the city hadn’t published the results before the council made its final decision on the long-term plan.

Going forward it would be a “fine balancing act” with the council’s strained finances, but the council had to improve its decision-making, she said.

Tony Randle said it showed “this city is on the wrong track and residents know it”.

“Wellingtonians are still waiting for most councillors to recognise we need to change direction and focus on what communities want rather than continuing with cycleways and Let’s Get Wellington Moving.”

The Residents Monitoring Survey was based on responses from 1100 people randomly selected from the council’s Capital Views panel, a group of 10,000.