Please note: this is an archived news article release

This article was published on Thursday, 31 January, 2019. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate. News articles and media releases older than 60 days are archived for future reference.

Community satisfaction with Council increasing

Greater Shepparton City Council has released the results of the Community Satisfaction Survey 2018/2019 Quarter 2 which shows the increase in overall satisfaction with Council compared to previous years has continued.

Since 2016 Greater Shepparton City Council has seen a significant increase in performance on all core measures including Overall Direction (up 21 points), Overall Performance (up 15 points), Making Community Decisions (up 9 points), Customer Service (up 13 points), and Sealed Local Roads (up 17 points since 2017).

Other areas such as Advocacy, the Transfer Station, Arts and Cultural Activities, Trust and Financial Management are all higher.

The main objectives of the survey are to assess the performance of Greater Shepparton City Council across a range of measures and to seek insight into ways to provide improved or more effective service delivery. The survey measures how the community believes Council is performing on a range of measures set by Local Government Victoria (LGV). The survey also provides councils with a means to fulfil some of their statutory reporting requirements as well as acting as a feedback mechanism to LGV.

Greater Shepparton City Council engaged Thinkfield to conduct the Community Satisfaction Survey. Thinkfield used Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) as a representative random probability survey of residents aged 18+ years in the Greater Shepparton municipality. They also conducted face to face interviews in the CBD in mid-December last year.

Two hundred Greater Shepparton residents completed interviews with the survey fieldwork being conducted in December 2018. This financial year the number of interviews to be completed increased to 800 (200 per quarter) from 500 (125 per quarter) in 2017 allowing for more accurate results.

Greater Shepparton City Council Director Corporate Services, Chris Teitzel, said the results of the survey are very pleasing. “The most impressive result is an increase in Overall Council Direction of 21 points in the past two years,” he said. “We have also seen an increase of 13 points in Customer Service and 15 points improvement with Overall Performance.”

“I think we are seeing a more accurate picture of community sentiment with this survey. Previous years’ surveys interviewed a total of 400 residents once a year but moving to quarterly surveys and interviewing more residents has provided a much more realistic result,” he said. “There are still improvements to be made and we encourage residents to provide their feedback if they are asked to participate next time.”

“We will continue to survey residents quarterly and release the results quarterly so that councillors and the community can see how we are tracking.”

The next survey for the third quarter will commence on 1 March 2019.

Survey Results

 

2019 Quarter 2

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

Overall Performance

64

62

52

49

57

58

51

55

Community Consultation

57

57

53

51

58

59

55

56

Advocacy

61

59

51

49

56

62

54

55

Making Community Decisions

58

54

49

46

56

56

0

0

Customer Service

73

71

66

60

69

72

70

68

Sealed Local Roads

57

55

40

48

49

0

0

0

Overall Council Direction

65

64

53

44

54

59

51

51

  • Overall Council Direction has improved to 65 points which is 21 points higher than 2016
  • Overall Performance is rated at 64 points which is 15 points higher than 2016.
  • Making Community Decisions has progressed to 58 points which is 12 points higher than 2016
  • Sealed Local Roads has experienced the largest increase up 17 points in index points from 2017 which can be attributed to the improved condition of our roads.
  • Customer Service has improved to 73 points – up 13 points since 2016

 

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