Results have been released for the annual Community Satisfaction Survey identifying areas with increased performance and areas with room for improvement.
The state-wide survey was carried out by JWS Research and National Field Services on behalf of Local Government Victoria to gauge how residents think Council has performed over a variety of fields over the last 12 months.
The survey helps Council identify the areas that are performing well and where improvements need to be made to meet the expectations of the community. Performance results are also compared with other similar large rural Councils.
A minimum sample of 400 residents aged over 18 years old are selected at random to complete the phone survey. Of the 400 residents surveyed, 60 per cent had contact with Council in the past 12 months, an eight per cent drop from the previous survey.
The seven performance measures assessed by the survey include overall performance, community consultation, advocacy, decisions made in the interest of the community, sealed local roads, customer service and overall Council direction.
What we’re doing well
- The results show and increase in residents’ satisfaction with Council’s level of community consultation and engagement, lobbying on behalf of the community and making decisions in the interest of the community.
- The condition of sealed local roads also increased to 42 per cent, as compared to a low of 35 per cent in 2015.
Areas for improvement
- Overall performance, contact with Customer Service and overall Council direction experienced a decrease in satisfaction levels.
- Despite a decrease from 66 to 64, Customer Service continued to be Council’s highest performing service measure. Customer satisfaction is highest among residents who communicated with Council in-person and the lowest among those who contacted Council via email.
Recent changes and improvements
- Increasing the annual investment in road maintenance to $8 million per year as part of the new road maintenance contract that was introduced on 1 July 2020.
- An increase in community engagement through Council’s ‘Have Your Say’ process to involve residents in the development of key projects, strategies and policies. Further work will take place to develop a Community Engagement Policy in line with the implementation of the Local Government Act 2020.
- The introduction of the Placemaking Program to work collaboratively with rural communities to deliver projects that are at the top of their wish-list.
- Consistent advocacy for key priorities including road upgrades, infrastructure improvements, better transport connectivity and a new hospital for West Gippsland.
- Increasing transparency and placing an emphasis on face-to-face communication with the community at Council Pop-up sessions in rural and large towns across the Shire throughout 2019. The program is continuing this year.
- Digital transformation of many services including customer service (phone system and Live Chat), planning applications and support for local business.
Residents are encouraged to provide feedback any time throughout the year by contacting the Customer Service team or local Councillors.
For the full survey results, go to Community Satisfaction Survey.
As stated by Mayor Cr Danny Goss
“Thank you to all of the residents who took answered the call and took the time to provide honest feedback about their experiences with Council. We acknowledge that our community would like to see improvements in some areas.”
“The community can expect to see improvements over the next year as our new road maintenance contract is rolled out, increasing the annual investment to $8 million per year. We’re also continuously focusing on improving all aspects of customer service to meet the needs of our growing community.”
