Community Satisfaction Survey - Birch Ward Residents Still Not Happy

Community Satisfaction Survey (CSS) Results have been published for Hepburn Shire Council and for councils across the state. Council has held the line with stable results across most areas compared to last year at a time when satisfaction with many other councils fell.

The CSS is commissioned each year by the State Government. The CSS surveys opinions of shire residents about areas of local government responsibility and provides feedback for councils about the effectiveness of programs they have in place. Local councils have choices about the content of the questionnaire but a core set of questions is common to all councils so that comparisons can be made between local government areas. Participation by local councils is voluntary. The Survey is one of many tools that Council uses in order to inform planning and programs of work and to support improvement in service delivery.

The survey was conducted by JWS Research using a representative sample of 400 community members surveyed on a quarterly basis (100 per quarter), rather than at one point in time as has been done in the past.

In the best performing areas, community satisfaction was on par with other small rural councils in waste management and tourism. Satisfaction with most other core areas was significantly lower than similar small councils.

The Hepburn Shire survey found small improvements in satisfaction compared to last year in a number of areas including overall performance, value for money, community consultation, making community decisions, customer service, overall Council direction and waste management. Satisfaction in other areas decreased slightly compared to last year. Mostly, the changes were small (less than 3 points) and were within the margin of error for the survey and so were not considered significant. Customer service was the exception, improving by 5 points compared to last year, an improvement which was statistically significant.

Compared to other small rural councils, Hepburn Shire was equal in areas such as customer service, waste management, environmental sustainability and business & community development. However, overall performance, value for money, council direction, appearance of public areas, recreational facilities, local law enforcement, consultation and engagement, lobbying, community decisions, slashing & weed control, planning & building permits and sealed local roads all rated significantly lower than the average for small rural councils (a difference of 5 or more points).

As in past years, satisfaction with council performance in all core areas was lowest in Birch Ward which covers Daylesford and Hepburn. It is unclear why Council performance is consistently rated lower by resident of Birch ward than any of the other townships in the Shire. (See Editor’s note below if you have ideas about why this is the case.) The result does not mean that Council performance was worse in Birch ward – rather it means that people in Birch ward are more critical and have higher expectations of Council performance. There is a high proportion of retirees in the local area who have moved from more affluent municipal councils which have the financial resources to provide much better facilities and services. The local population is also quite diverse on a range of demographic and socio-economic dimensions which makes pleasing all segments of the community problematic.

The report highlighted areas where there is a substantial difference between community expectation and council performance. Survey respondents were asked about the importance of particular core areas of council responsibility and about council performance. The difference between importance and performance was large for core areas such as slashing & weed control, planning & building permits and consultation & engagement. This last difference is notable given that council spends in excess of $500,000 per year on community engagement processes.

Core CSS areas for which there were substantial differences between ratings of importance and council performance. (Image: JWS Research)

Mayor, Cr Brian Hood, said some of the results were expected. “Due to the repeated extreme weather events experienced over the past few years we recognise our roads are adversely impacted,” he said. Cr Hood was upbeat about the upward trend across a number of measures particularly in view of the fact that there has been a downward trend in small rural councils and state-wide compared to previous years. “We also acknowledge there is much more work to be done,” he said.

The full survey results are available on our website at https://www.hepburn.vic.gov.au/Council/Plans-and-publications/Performance.

Editor’s note: The low ratings of Council performance by Birch ward residents have been a consistent feature of Community Satisfaction surveys in recent years. If you have ideas about why the local community rates Council performance so poorly, we would like to hear from you. You can post a letter to the editor on our website or write to editor@thewombatpost.com.au.

Community Satisfaction with Council Improves (2021)

Satisfaction with Council Falls Sharply (2020)