1.0 INTRODUCTION
In 2016, Lake Okareka Community Association contacted APR Consultants Ltd (APR) to enquire about undertaking a survey programme to gauge the opinions of Lake Okareka residents regarding current issues before the committee.
At the January 2016 AGM of the Lake Okareka Community Association (LOCA), a resolution was passed that a ten-year plan should be developed by LOCA. In order to undertake this, it was decided that the views of Lake Okareka residents needed to be taken into consideration.
APR was commissioned to develop and administer this survey programme on an anonymous basis. The analysis and reporting of the survey results was also undertaken by APR.
This survey was issued to the Lake Okareka community in mid-October 2016 and sampling finished in early November 2016. The results of the survey were to be available at the 2017 AGM of LOCA.
2.0 METHODOLOGY
APR worked with LOCA to develop the survey protocols, the survey form and survey questions. It was decided that the survey would be open to all Lake Okareka residents, and that multiple surveys could be received from each household if required. It was decided that physical copies of the survey would be required along with an internet based web survey.
LOCA provided APR with a list of questions that they wanted covered in the research. APR used this to create a draft questionnaire. The questions were checked and refined by LOCA to ensure the survey met LOCA requirements. Once the paper version of the survey was agreed upon, an electronic version of the survey was produced.
LOCA provided APR with a database of householders that was used solely for the distribution of surveys. This consisted of a mixture of email addresses and postal addresses.
All households with email addresses were sent an email inviting the residents and holiday home owners to undertake a survey with an electronic link to the survey. All households without email addresses were sent a printed copy via snail mail. All physical survey forms contained a Freepost Authority and could be folded and posted in any mail box for return to APR.
Any email bounce backs were checked, and subsequently, a printed copy was sent to them. Physical copies of the survey form were kept at the Lake Okareka Preschool. Posters were placed in the township advertising the survey and explaining how to get a copy.
A total of 277 surveys were distributed to the Lake Okareka community. Out of these, 227 surveys were received from at least 147 different Lake Okareka households. The results of these surveys are reported upon in this report.
3.0 SURVEY RESULTS
A total of 227 surveys were received from Lake Okareka residents. These were made up from 147 unique households along with 24 surveys who did not specify their residential address. A further 56 surveys were from other members of households (ie, were not unique).
Most questions asked used a five point Likert scale or yes/no responses to questions. These were used to create an index showing support vs non-support for the question being commented upon. In order to make recommendations, all questions were converted to an index. The benefit of an index is that it allows questions to be directly compared to each other and also allows for comparisons to be made with any future occurrences of this survey.
To create an index, percentages were calculated from respondents whom had supplied an answer (giving a total of 100%). The negative percentage rating(s) were subtracted from the positive ratings. The neutral percentage is not used in the calculation, but is still reflected in the index as it contributed to the 100% total. The result of this calculation is shown as the index. An index can have a maximum score of 100 (indicating maximum satisfaction) and a minimum score of -100 (indicating maximum dissatisfaction). A score of 0 is the middle point and indicates an even mix of positive and negative experiences (or a neutral rating).
The table below shows all the questions that could be converted to an index sorted by that index. Questions at the top of the table are the ones that are most supported by survey respondents. Those at the bottom are the ones that are opposed or not supported.
The top five supported questions are to do with lake quality improvement and environmental issues (index of 95.0), having a pest free environment (87.4) protection of lake shore habitat (76.1), undergrounding of power lines (72.8) and introduction of access bike and walking track up to Tarawera Road (61.3).
The least liked element affecting respondents was freedom camping (index of -39.7), followed by the expansion of DoC camp ground (-20.3) and support for proposed water ski slalom course for the Silver Beach area (-14.0).