“Patrick and his team provided a very thorough and independent review of the Council’s public submissions to the 2018-2028 Long Term Plan (LTP). This required them to review, analyse and present a substantive report, on over 3,300 submissions, covering many topics of significant interest to the community. The final report was very well received by Elected Members and helped to ensure the LTP process was completed within the planned timelines. ”
Background and aims
Tauranga City Council (TCC) developed the Long Term Plan (LTP) 2018-2028 for the vision, direction, budget, and work plan of Tauranga over the next ten years. TCC sought public feedback regarding the LTP and insight into what the Tauranga community wanted for their city and how they thought it should be funded. A public consultation document for the LTP was presented to the public with a submission section focusing on seven key topics:
Structure of rates
Transport
Waste and recycling
Investment in museum & library
Tsunami alerting
Elder housing
Tourism Bay of Plenty
From these seven topics, 12 Key Questions were asked, each with two, three, or four selectable options for the preferred action that TCC should take.
Our role
Global Research was appointed to collate all LTP submissions, and to analyse and summarise them into a report to inform TCC Elected Members of the public’s views on each of the seven key LTP topics. In total, 3,425 submissions were received: 1677 online submission forms; 344 paper submission forms; 1066 Facebook responses; and, 338 submissions provided in submitters’ own formats.
Design and method
Submitters’ comments on each of the 12 Key Questions were separated based on the submitters’ preferred Option for proposed TCC actions. Their comments, ideas, and reasoning for selecting their preferred option were collated into common themes and ideas with the help of NVivo qualitative analysis software. Broader themes were also identified, based on the ‘general comments’ section of the survey and submitters’ comments.
Global Research completed quantitative analysis and generated informative charts to present submitters’ preferred Option of TCC actions.
Result
Global Research produced an in-depth report synthesising the 12 Key Questions and broader themes. The report took the nearly 3,500 submissions and converted them into findings that in a comprehensive and balanced way presented the opinions of the community to decision makers.
Outcome
The Global Research report informed TCC Elected Members of the public’s views and opinions on what they wanted their city to look like and how it should be funded - it simplified and improved the quality of the decision making process. The analysis ensured that the public had confidence that decision makers had a thorough understanding of the communities views on key issues. The results of the process can be viewed here.