Work ahead to regain trust and confidence

The annual local government community satisfaction survey has yielded disappointing results for Warrnambool City Council.

The community gave Council a rating of 42 on overall performance, down on 56 in 2019.

“Our results in the seven core measures are down on the 2019 results,” Council Chief Executive Officer Peter Schneider said.

“It shows we have work to do if we are to regain the trust and confidence of our community.

“While we can look at the challenging issues that were playing out at the time the survey was conducted – horses on beaches, a councillor resignation, the Reid Oval design, the Lookout proposal, free car parking, ongoing investigations into management of credit cards and the start of COVID-19 restrictions – the reality is that many in the community are not happy with our performance and we must address this.”

The survey, independently conducted by JWS Research, is conducted annually and includes most Victorian Councils.

The 2020 results show that across Victoria generally community satisfaction across all seven core measures has decreased over the past year.

The survey, conducted between January 30 and March 22, asks 400 residents in each Council area a range of questions relating to how they perceive Council has performed across a broad range of services.

“We’ve had a clear message from the community that they are disappointed in us,” Mr Schneider said.

“The findings tell us we need to approach some issues differently and where we are making difficult decisions we need to do a better job of explaining why those decisions were made.

“There were some encouraging results with the following categories in line with either state or regional centre averages: appearance of public areas, emergency and disaster management, waste management, family support services, elderly support services, local law enforcement, tourism development, disadvantaged support services, environmental sustainability, business and community development, building and planning permits and population growth.”

Core measure

2020 result

2019 result

Overall performance

42

56

Community consultation

42

47

Lobbying

43

53

Making community decisions

38

48

Sealed local roads

48

58

Customer service

63

73

Overall Council direction

32

50

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