A quick fire online road survey based on the previous two snow events in the Queenstown Lakes District has provided essential community feedback.

A total of 104 people went online and took the time to share their experience of the previous snow events.

“Not only does it provide a picture in terms of meeting or not meeting expectations around clearing and gritting of roads, we now have some constructive feedback to work on,” Queenstown Lakes District Council transport manager Denis Mander said.

In terms of response, 79% of people that responded were satisfied with the clearing and gritting of main arterials, while satisfaction with the clearance of secondary roads and footpaths received a more mixed response with 56% and 57% satisfaction respectively. The response was more favourable for how well people were kept informed with 70% satisfaction.

“I am extremely grateful to those people that took part online. For me that forms an important part of the feedback we need,’ QLDC Mayor Vanessa van Uden said.

The Mayor took to the roads during the previous and more recent events and conducted a face to face survey with the community and looked in detail at the response.

“With the online information together with my own observations, I am now very clear that we need to do a hell of a lot better,’ she said. The Mayor considered the areas of focus needed to include on the ground management of the response, appropriate plant dedicated to the Council, according to the nature of the event and the deployment of trained and experienced staff.

The online survey also offered a good picture of how people kept informed.

“Predominantly people took their information from radio (70 respondents) but Council’s website (50 respondents) and social media (22 respondents) also proved to be an important source of information,” Mr Mander said.

Council would also review its messages to ensure they were appropriate for a winter resort.

One of the great things about the feedback was the diverse geographical spread of respondents and the well considered and valuable comments made.

Although several comments were highly complementary others reflected frustrations, particularly around the time it took to clear secondary roads in Arrowtown, Kelvin Heights, Moke Lake, Dalefield and Quail Rise.

Footpath clearance also attracted some strong comments with one respondent reporting a broken arm in the Queenstown town centre and “lethal” conditions for pedestrians.
The “idiots” that stop in the middle of the road to put chains on copped some criticism as did shop owners for failing to proactively clear snow.

The Crown Range Road also generated several comments including a reported failure to clear the zig zag section and a perception that clearance and gritting did not occur early enough: “get out of bed and do your job coz the pixies won’t come in the dark and do it for you.”

“We also had some comments about the quality of the grit. Several people commented it was dirty and too large and others were unhappy with grit clearance,” Mr Mander said.

All comments would be explored in detail with Council contractors.

“My expectation is we will learn from this and I have no doubt we can improve the response,” Mayor van Uden said.

As the snow event this week demonstrated, when an event was widespread across the district, an appropriate level of resource was needed.

“What we need to do is ensure that those resources are being appropriately applied and that we continue to work hard on keeping the community informed,” Mr Mander said.

The Council welcomed the communities’ continued feedback.

>> Download the Quickfire Survey results here   

ENDS

For further information please contact Denis Mander 03 441 0499.

By: Jo Blick