Improvement in satisfaction with Council

Published on 20 July 2021

The 2021 Community Satisfaction Survey has shown an improvement in community sentiment towards Hepburn Shire Council’s performance.

The annual Victorian local government survey measures community satisfaction across a range of areas, including Council direction, waste management, engagement, sealed local roads, overall performance and customer service.

Mayor, Cr Lesley Hewitt, said she was pleased to see improvements across all core measures.

“We are working extremely hard to improve the way we do things at Council and these results reflect the continuing effort of Councillors and staff,” said Cr Hewitt.

“There are still improvements to make, and our focus will be to strengthen and build on these results over coming years,” she said.

The survey was conducted by phone between January and March 2021.

It included interviews with a representative sample of 400 residents across all wards.

For the first time, data is available for each of the five wards.

The biggest change in satisfaction across the seven core areas was for overall council direction (11 percentage point increase), waste management (7 percentage point increase) and overall performance (6 percentage point increase).

Younger residents aged 18 to 34 were most satisfied with Council’s overall performance (62, an increase of 7 percentage points), and Council saw a considerable increase in women’s overall satisfaction (an increase of 10 percentage points).

There was an 11 percentage point improvement in satisfaction by residents aged 50-64 years.

This age group had the most contact with Council, but was also the most critical.

“The Community Satisfaction Survey is a useful tool for Council to understand community perceptions, and is one of many ways we hear from the community. It’s important to remember that the survey is taken at a point in time and this can often impact community sentiment,” said Cr Hewitt.

“We have undertaken a considerable amount of community engagement this year, which has informed the development of our draft Council Plan and Community Vision through the Hepburn Together project.

“The Council Plan and Community Vision outline our priorities and strategies for the next four years and beyond. I encourage everyone to read through the draft documents once they become publicly available shortly,” she said.

“They outline our commitment to areas such as community decisions, waste management, advocacy, governance and more.”

Community Satisfaction Survey results are available on Council’s website at www.hepburn.vic.gov.au/community-satisfaction-survey.