Residents report high levels of satisfaction with Council

Residents have reported high levels of satisfaction with Council services and facilities in the latest municipal survey. 

Bayside City Council’s 2018 Community Satisfaction Survey was conducted by an independent market research company to gauge the community’s satisfaction with Council services. 

Face-to-face surveys were conducted for the first time, which involved door-to-door interviews of more than 700 households, selected at random from across the municipality.

Bayside City Council Mayor Cr Laurence Evans said it was good to hear the community’s feedback on such a large-scale.

“Our survey involved in-depth conversations to truly understand the issues that are important to Bayside residents and how Council is performing,” he said.

The survey measured residents’ satisfaction with overall performance, services and facilities, planning and development, customer service and planning for population growth, along with other issues.

The majority of respondents were satisfied with Council’s overall performance, giving Council an average score of 6.9 out of 10.

More than 37 per cent of respondents were very satisfied with Council’s overall performance, giving Council a score of eight or more out of ten.

Satisfaction with the overall performance of Bayside City Council was higher than the average for the six inner eastern region councils; Yarra, Glen Eira, Stonnington, Bayside, Port Phillip and Melbourne.

The survey also explored the top issues of concern for the community, with residents most concerned with building, planning, housing and development, car parking and traffic management.

Building issues mostly related to high-density development; including the number of new developments, size, height and set-back distances of buildings and the protection of neighbourhood character.

These development issues have a flow-on impact to car parking and traffic management.

Cr Evans said Council would use the results of the survey to inform its priories.

“The survey reinforced our understanding of what is important to the community and confirmed the feedback we received from the community during the development of the Bayside Community Plan 2025.”

“We will use this information to shape our strategies and increase our advocacy efforts to other levels of government.”

Cr Evans said the results were overwhelmingly positive.

“I’m really pleased that across all of our services residents rated our performance as ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.”

“Bayside residents listed waste and recycling as the most important Council services. Our green spaces and foreshore also rated as being very important to our residents.”

“Overall, it was a very pleasing result and we plan to build on this in coming years.”

The 2018 survey was more extensive than previous years, with 700 residents interviewed this year, up from 400 last year, and was conducted in person rather than over the phone.

“The new survey sought the views of many more residents, which allows council to better understand the needs of the community,” Cr Evans said.  

-ends-

Media contact:  Samantha Robin 9599 4353 media [at] bayside.vic.gov.au