A consent customer survey has shown 74% of applicants rate the Otago Regional Council's quality of service as excellent or very good.
The questionnaire was completed by 27% of the 340 consent applicants who received a decision in the year to June 30, 2008.
Strategic communications associate director Peter Taylor said the results showed regional council consent customers were generally satisfied with consent process services.
However, time taken to process resource consents and costs required further improvements.
Also needing improvement were application forms, guidance brochures and web information, he said.
Customers only gave the application forms a 55% rating of being very easy or somewhat easy.
The quality of service rating had increased, with 70% grading it as excellent or very good in 2006-07, compared with 51% in 2005-06.
Customers also rated the hearing process highly, giving it a 100% for its conduct, an improvement on the past two years when the rating was about 12% lower, and 93% for notice of a hearing.
They rated the processing cost at 85%, also up on previous years, and conditions and terms of consent at 80%.
Cr Bryan Scott said the results were quite extraordinary, especially the 100% rating for hearings.
By next year the council would need to see significant improvement in the application form rating, he said.
