Tasman case study
Case study: Urban Amenity Survey
Purpose and process
Tasman District Council wanted to learn about about residents’ satisfaction with urban amenity.
A questionnaire was posted to every 10th Richmond household and to every Mapua household—694 households in all. The questionnaire was designed to be short and succinct, and used a mixture of open and closed questions. It received a 57 percent response rate, and surveyed residents about their satisfaction with:
- lifestyle factors
- noise
- parking
- sun
- glare
- outdoor living space
- density
- townscape
- reserves
Lessons learned
The survey collected a variety of new information that will be useful to several sections of Council, to developers, and to other interest groups. Using a postal survey was time and cost-effective. The following techniques also helped ensure the success of the survey:
- using an external peer reviewer familiar with satisfaction surveys
- piloting the survey among a small group of residents before sending it out
- offering a prize to people who completed and returned their survey within a specified timeframe
- coding and analysing the survey results in Microsoft Excel.
Resource: Letter and satisfaction survey [Word doc 59kb]
