September 1, 2017
Queensland councils have won a tick of approval from their communities, according to a new survey commissioned by the Local Government Association of Queensland.
The 2017 Fred Rogers Community Satisfaction Tracking Study showed local councils were performing particularly well in key service areas such as maintenance of parks and gardens, libraries and other aspects of community lifestyles.
The survey, which is conducted every two years, found overall satisfaction with the job that councils do stood at 69.4 percent, compared with a rating of 70 percent two years ago.
LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam said the survey results showed a healthy public regard for local government despite some recent controversies.
“These results show the community is a great arbiter of who’s fair dinkum and who’s not,” he said.
“To record a consistently high satisfaction rating suggests the public realise most of the people who work for the local council are fair dinkum about looking after the community.”
The results suggest councils perform best on services to do with activities such as parks and garden maintenance, sporting facilities and heritage protection.
But the survey also suggests councils need to do more work on customer service and communicating with the public.
The 2017 Community Satisfaction Tracking Study, conducted by Morton Consulting Services and Market Facts, canvassed the opinions of 700 households across Queensland.
The independent survey is the 11th in a series that analyses community satisfaction and determines benchmarks for council performance.
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Some Highlights From The 2017 Survey:
- Almost 86 per cent of the survey’s 700 respondents paid rates
- 69 per cent of these ratepayers considered that the rates and charges levied by their local council were either excellent, good or fair value for money
- When asked how strongly they would support their council cutting some services or reducing service levels if this allowed some reduction in the level of rates and charges, 50.3 per cent were opposed or strongly opposed to this, while only 7 per cent supported the idea
- More than 45 per cent of respondents had accessed their Council’s website, and 57.1 per cent of these rated the quality of their council’s online information services as either very good or good
- Slightly more than 40 per cent of respondents regularly used social media such as Facebook or Twitter, and one fifth of these said they did so to obtain information or interact with their council; however, almost half of these felt that some council information could be inaccurate or “fake” news
- Only 9 per cent of social media users engaged with their Mayor or Councillors using social media
- When asked which sources were trusted for information about their council’s performance, 61.6 per cent nominated local media; local word of mouth was nominated by 46.6 per cent, and council publications or websites by 45.1 per cent
A full copy of the survey results can be downloaded here (1mb PDF)
