Community Satisfaction Survey reveals what you value most
Published on 22 July 2015
Mildura Rural City Council has released results from its recent Community Satisfaction Survey, giving Councillors and staff a better understanding of what the community see as important.
This year 414 residents completed the Community Satisfaction Survey during March and April and were given the opportunity to relay their perceptions of 73 Council services.
The survey was conducted by an independent research company with Mayor Glenn Milne saying the results were similar to last year with respondents indicating an overall moderate level of satisfaction with Council.
“11% were highly satisfied and 44% were neutral but 45% of respondents indicated they weren’t satisfied with the performance of Council in general. Last year 49% of respondents said they weren’t satisfied with the performance of Council so that’s a slight improvement and we can see there is still work to be done,” Cr Milne said.
Significantly, the mean performance score for all services and indicators measured did increase.
While not all services provided by Council are included in the survey, results showed community members were most satisfied with libraries, immunisation programs, swimming pools and ovals and grounds, as well as the general courtesy of Council staff. This information was supported with people seeing immunisation programs, emergency management and recreation facilities as being some of the most important services Council offers.
“Some areas that ranked at the lower end of the scale in terms of perceived performance included value for money, Council's responsiveness to community input and feedback, performance of the elected Council, Council's engagement in decision making and local roads,” Cr Milne explained.
“Results have improved since last year, but this is still indicative of where we need to work harder to improve the public’s understanding of what we’re doing and more importantly, the decision making processes behind what we do.
“Once again this year there has been some vigorous public debates and we will now move forward with a number of projects that will hopefully continue to see these results improve in the coming months.”
Other results included 49% of respondents indicating they feel safe or very safe in the community, an increase from the 2014 result of 46%.
About one third of respondents (34%) indicated they participate in a sport or physical recreation activity three or more times per week, a similar result from 2014 (33%). 40% of respondents participate in sport or physical recreation one or two times per week and 25% of respondents indicate they do not engage in sport or physical recreation activity at all in an average week.
“We will certainly take these results on board,” said Cr Milne. “It’s important we keep touch with what our community rates as high on their priority lists.”
A report detailing the survey results will be presented at this week’s Ordinary Council meeting.
ENDS