Council satisfaction level hits seven-year high, despite ongoing roading concerns

Thursday, 19 March 2026

Christchurch City Council chief executive Mary Richardson and mayor Phil Mauger have announced another lift in satisfaction levels. (File photo)

Residents’ satisfaction with Christchurch City Council has climbed to its highest level since 2019, but the state of roads remains the city’s biggest bugbear.

The annual residents survey, released on Thursday, shows 60% of people are satisfied with the council, up from 53% last year.

While is it still a long way from the pre-earthquake levels of around 79%, satisfaction is a lot higher than the 2022 figure of 42%.

Some 9138 people were surveyed. Residents were asked over the past year if they felt satisfied, dissatisfied, or neutral about most aspects of council, including libraries and parks and transparency.

Chief executive Mary Richardson said the turnaround was due to improvements made across the whole organisation.

Satisfaction with the leadership of mayor Phil Mauger and 16 councillors was higher than last year, at 45% compared to 35%.

People who understood the council’s decision making was up from 40% to 48%.

The number of people who thought the council was making wise spending decisions was up 7 percentage points, but it was still sitting at only 28%.

The city’s libraries, including Tūranga, had one of the highest ratings in the survey.

Some 40% of residents agreed the council had a good reputation and could be trusted, up from 32% in 2025.

Mauger acknowledged the council still had more work to do, but said the results suggested improvements put in place since 2022 were working steadily.

Up until February 2024, most council and community board briefings and workshops were closed to the public. However, following a call from the chief ombudsman the council decided to hold most of them in public.

The highest rated council services were waste management, parks and reserves and libraries.

The state of the city’s roads is the most complained about topic and has been since 2011.

The condition of roads was the top reason why people were dissatisfied with the council, followed by a perception the council was not listening to resident spending priorities and the affordability of rates.

People were also concerned about the stench coming from the wastewater treatment plant.

“Not addressing issues adequately threatens to impact negatively on perceived overall organisation performance and the council’s reputation,” the report said.

Recurring potholes and uneven road surfaces have been the most common area for improvement each year since 2011.

People wanted the council to fix roads more promptly but disliked ongoing roadworks. They disliked speed reducing humps at intersections but expressed concerns about traffic safety.

People also disliked money being spent on cycleways at the expense of road repairs and disliked restrictions cycleways placed on traffic flow.

Many residents wanted improvements to services, while others were reluctant to see rates rise.

Mauger said the push and pull of competing priorities was something every council deals with, but the data would help the council in planning its next 10 year budget.