Surveys suggested for council decisions

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 631, 9 April 1996, Page 5

Surveys suggested for council decisions

Public opinion on activities and plans of the Ruapehu District Council may in future be gauged using surveys run by council staff. District marketing manager Bruce Rollinson presented a report to the council at their last meeting pointing out that the council had the expertise in-house to run professionally-administered surveys. He suggests such surveys could be used by council staff and community boards and the council to gain a 'snap shot' of community opinion to help with the decision making process. He said if there was a very contentious issue, an independent market research organisation may be required

"only to avoid suspicion about in-house surveys". The average cost of a survey wOuld be $3500. Mr Rollinson said problems with questionnaire clippings through the council' s newsletter was that it was not a random selection of respondents, the response was low and "those that reply usually have an extreme opinion of either one way or the other" giving distorted results. "The real benefit of utilising this resource (survey expertise) will be more informed decision making for Council and a willingness to pro-actively seek direction from the community," concluded Mr Rollinson.