Kingston hears from community in annual satisfaction survey

15 June 2018

Residents have given Kingston Council the thumbs up for overall performance in this year’s independent Community Satisfaction Survey.

Four randomly hundred Kingston households took part in the annual survey - coordinated by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and conducted by independent group JWS Research in February and March this year.

Kingston Mayor Steve Staikos welcomed Council’s overall performance score of 64, above the state-wide council average of 59.  “Kingston strives to deliver great services, value for money and the survey shows people appreciate this with our overall score six points higher than the state average,” Cr Staikos said.

Kingston also scored strongly in the key areas of waste management, arts centres, libraries and recreational facilities and also performed significantly higher than the stage average in a range of areas including local streets and footpaths, community and cultural services, and weed control.

Two thirds of the community believe Council is heading in the right direction, with residents aged 18 to 34-years-old the most satisfied with Council’s performance, and residents in South Ward gave Council the highest rating for customer service.

Mayor Staikos said Kingston believed it was important to take part in the voluntary survey to check-in with residents and listen to their responses. “We always want to learn which areas we can improve on and it’s vital that we hear from our community to ensure we can make changes where necessary.”

Council’s lowest three performance service areas were planning & building permits, planning for population growth and decisions made in the interest of the community.

“Community concerns over planning in local neighbourhoods have been felt across Melbourne for a number of years and illustrate the challenges local Councils face in balancing demand for housing supply in a time of population growth with community expectations,” Cr Staikos said.

“While many people would like to see less development, Councils can only assess planning applications against Victorian Planning laws.  Kingston Council is working to strengthen protection of our local suburbs and we’re currently putting together a Neighbourhood Character Strategy, Housing Strategy and Car Parking Strategy to tackle these issues head-on.”

Cr Staikos said the results showed the community was also looking for improvements in community consultation, lobbying and community decision making.  “We’ve taken that feedback on board and our three key pillars of the Council Plan are now: Putting our Customers First; Engaging the Community in Decision Making and Speaking Up on Behalf of our Community. We’ve also launched a new Customer Service Charter which was developed by a community panel.” 

“Kingston Council holds regular consultations on key issues and I encourage anyone wanting to take part to sign up at yourkingstonyoursay.com.au so you don’t miss out on any opportunity to give your feedback. Since it was launched over 20,000 people have visited the site,” Cr Staikos said. “You can also raise any other issues with us via phone, on our social media, by email or directly contacting your local councillors.”