Surveys to reveal community wellbeing and satisfaction
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Eight-hundred Eurobodalla residents will be contacted by telephone over the coming weeks to provide their views about the services provided by Council and how they feel about living in Eurobodalla.
The two surveys will be conducted for Council by market research agency, Micromex.
Council’s General Manager Dr Catherine Dale said Council conducts the surveys every four years as part the organisation’s planning and community engagement processes.
“We see the surveys as an opportunity to ask the community which services are most important to them and what they value in their community. The information from the surveys helps us decide which Council services need more or less resources, to prioritise projects, and to plan for what the community wants into the future.”
Dr Dale explained that the wellbeing survey asks residents how they feel about living in their community, how they access local services, and their participation in community life, while the Council services survey asks people to rate the importance of services and their satisfaction with them, “everything from dog and cat control to roads and footpaths, services for children and older people, to our planning and development services and our tourism efforts,” she said.
“People will be contacted randomly by telephone and asked basic information about their age and gender before the survey starts to make sure the information gathered is demographically representative and statistically reliable. The person called may not fit the demographic needed, and in that case, the surveyor will explain why the survey won’t continue and thank them for the time.”
“To address the declining use of landlines, Micromex will also be visiting local shopping centres this week to ask people to supply their mobile phone number for the sample pool to be surveyed.”
Dr Dale said the surveys, which will take respondents around 15-17 minutes each to complete, are also important for benchmarking.
“We are always looking to make improvements and these surveys are one way we can measure improvements consistently over a long period,” she said.
The survey results will be published on Council’s website in early May, and will inform the State of Shire report to be published in June and the end of Council term report in August.