Council community survey shows high satisfaction

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Council community survey
Bundaberg Regional Council undertook a community survey in May.

Bundaberg Regional Council has thanked residents who participated in a recent community survey.

Chief executive Steve Johnston said the Council community survey involved 1151 people participating by phone and online in May.

“This was more than double the number who were previously surveyed in 2014,” he said.

“The consultants commented that the Bundaberg Region has a very engaged community and online participation was higher than other places.

“Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer questions and share their feedback.”

The phone survey involved random calls and 453 responses were collated.

People were asked to rate their satisfaction with Council facilities and services, also the importance they place on those.

“It’s a useful tool to gauge how people feel about Council services at a particular point in time,” Mr Johnston said.

“By also measuring importance, we’re able to see areas for potential improvement.”

Council community survey measures importance

Respondents were asked to provide a satisfaction rating on a scale of one to five, where one was very dissatisfied and five was very satisfied with a mid-point of three.

In all, 52 per cent of telephone respondents were satisfied with Council’s overall performance and 15 per cent were dissatisfied.

The mean overall satisfaction score was 3.44 out of five, which was the highest out of four Queensland councils that have undertaken similar surveys and published their results.

“This is an impressive result and an important measure to track over time,” the report says.

“A third of respondents were neutral towards Council, suggesting there is opportunity to improve results further by moving this 33 per cent into the ‘satisfied’ category.”

Services with the highest satisfaction were libraries and parks. The lowest scores were for planning and roads.

Mr Johnston said the Council community survey provides baseline data to use as a benchmark.

“Funds were allocated in last week’s budget to undertake the survey again,” he said.

“It will be interesting and helpful to monitor trends and fluctuations. There’s always room to improve.”