Community satisfaction survey provides valuable insights for council
Explore Councils by state
Posted on August 23, 2023
Community members in the Central Highlands are largely happy with the region’s outdoor spaces and community buildings; water and wastewater services; customer service and rubbish and recycling services, according to a recent survey.
Results from Central Highlands Regional Council’s biennial community survey were released this week giving council valuable insight into what’s working and what needs improvement.
The telephone survey, conducted in March 2023 by independent market research consultants Enhance Research, canvassed over 400 people in the region with the demographic spread across age, gender and location.
Mayor Kerry Hayes thanked people who gave their time to be part of the survey.
‘We sincerely value the views of people living in the region because it’s so useful to round out our data and help us plan where to place more effort,’ he said.
‘Of particular interest are what community members consider to be the most important services—basically what’s important to people that makes them either satisfied or not with council’s management performance,’ the mayor explained.
The survey showed council’s overall performance is moderate (6.1 out of 10).
‘The areas we need to focus on are those things that people think are important, but feel we don’t perform well in,’ said Chief Executive Officer Sharon Houlihan.
‘This year the areas needing concentration are roads and streetscapes, transparency in communication, access to waste facilities and recycling opportunities, we well as the quality of parks and sporting facilities meeting the needs of the community,’ she continued.
Regarding roads, rates and rubbish—the typical local government mantra, Central Highlands gets mixed reviews.
‘This year we learned that all communities value road maintenance above all else,’ she said.
Ms Houlihan thanked the community for telling us their views and said the survey results will be considered along with other data when setting council’s operational priorities over the next two years.
Download the community survey report.
To keep updated on future news regarding council projects like this one, subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter here. Visit our website here for current job opportunities at council.