Colac Otway Shire Council has received its results from an annual Community Satisfaction Survey that measures community perceptions of Council performance.
The independent survey helps Council to gain insight into the community's satisfaction with Council's leadership and its delivery of key services.
Now in its twenty-fifth year, the survey seeks community views on a range of Council services and is benchmarked against both state-wide and other large rural Councils.
It provides feedback on councils' overall performance, value for money in services and infrastructure; community consultation and engagement; decisions made in the interest of the community; customer service, local infrastructure, facilities, services and overall council direction.
Council's overall performance score of 50 is lower than the 2022 result of 56, and lower than the 'large rural group average' score of 52.
Residents of Colac and surrounding areas rated Council's overall performance highest, while residents of Apollo Bay and surrounding areas provided the lowest rating.
Areas highlighted from community feedback as being in most need of attention include planning and building permits, and the maintenance of unsealed roads and sealed local roads. Community perception of these service areas declined over the past year and impacted the overall score.
Planning and building permits dropped year on year by 11 points (38-27), unsealed roads dropped by 5 points (37-32) and sealed local roads dropped by 8 points (47-39).
The report produced by JWS Research, based on a phone survey of 400 residents, states that Council continues to excel in the areas of art centres and libraries, elderly support services, waste management and family support services. Council performs significantly higher than state-wide and other large rural Councils in the provision of art centre and library services, and in elderly support services.
Customer Service ratings increased in 2023 from 63 to 66 in line with state-wide and large rural Councils.
Mayor Chris Potter said the annual survey highlighted areas for improvement and areas that require ongoing maintenance to continue to meet community expectations.
"It shows that we have areas that need significant work to make a difference to both our delivery of services and the understanding of how these services operate, and that we also do many things quite well compared to our peers.
"Council performs around 140 important functions and services for our communities and we strive to deliver those in the best way possible, and we do recognise we need continual improvement to support strong and healthy communities.
"We will take this feedback and work with our various departments, community groups and partners to ensure we find ways to improve, particularly in areas highlighted as well below state or large rural council averages."
Mayor Potter said the survey highlighted the need to better communicate Council decisions, and the process and discussion involved, to help provide confidence that decisions are made in the best interests of the community, and to connect more broadly with local communities through consultation and engagement.
"We put a great deal of effort into this already, but we will always explore new ways to improve the understanding of Council's decision-making and how we can get community input on the things that matter to the people of Colac Otway Shire."
Click to view Community Satisfaction Survey Results.
