Positive results received from Leeton Shire Council Community Satisfaction Survey

28 Nov 2019 3:00 PM -

Leeton Shire Council noted the results received from the Leeton Shire Council Community Satisfaction Survey at its November Ordinary Council Meeting.

Council’s Manager Communications and Marketing Brent Lawrence stated in his report that Council contracted the services of market research, community and stakeholder consultation services company Micromex to undertake a Community Satisfaction Survey on behalf of Leeton Shire Council.

“This research, conducted via a telephone survey (landline and mobile), was carried out during the last week of September. To ensure results were statistically valid, 401 residents were contacted in support of an appropriate sample size for in-depth data analysis.”

The Leeton Shire Council Community Satisfaction Survey focused on two key areas, Quality of Life and Community Satisfaction.

When analysing the survey results, the vast majority (93%) of Leeton residents were at least somewhat satisfied with the performance of Council administration over the last 12 months.

In a recent presentation to Council on the results, Micromex General Manager, Mark Mitchell, said this is a very positive result for Council, with ratings significantly greater than the Micromex Regional Local Government Area Benchmark – and the best result Micromex has seen from all local government Councils they have worked with over the past 12 months.

Similarly, 93% of residents were at least somewhat satisfied with the performance of elected Councillors.

Of 21 comparable ‘liveability’ agreement statements, Leeton Shire Council is performing equal to or higher than the Micromex Regional LGA (Benchmark) in 17 of the statements.

When asked about what people value most about living in the Leeton Shire region, 37% of survey participants indicated that the sense of community/friendly people of Leeton Shire Council received the highest score followed by the lifestyle the area provides with the small country town atmosphere.

Not surprisingly, local roads came through as the assets that residents consider to be of the highest importance, and the assets that received the highest importance rating but lowest satisfaction ratings overall.

However, it’s worth noting that investing more resources into local roads did not come through in the survey results as a major driver of overall satisfaction with Council or quality of life.

Opportunities identified for Council to invest further time and resource into (including from an advocacy point of view) were supporting local businesses that rely heavily on water supply and management, more adequately resourced local police services as well as improved healthcare facilities/services which received the second lowest agreement result in the quality of life section of the survey. Healthcare was also one of the higher drivers of overall quality of life in Leeton.

Councillor Tony Reneker requested that the Murrumbidgee Local Health District and the Murrumbidgee Police Commander be provided with copies of the survey results.

A full copy of the survey results can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE