Maribyrnong community satisfaction at an all-time high
Published on 17 February 2021
Community satisfaction with Maribyrnong City Council is at an all-time high.
The level of overall satisfaction recorded in the Annual Community Satisfaction is 6.99 (out of 10) – the highest ever rating received. This is also a 13.8% increase on the previous low score of 6.14 recorded in 2014.
Council recorded a ‘good’ to ‘very good’ level of community satisfaction across the full range of services and facilities, as well as governance and leadership.
While the results are pleasing, Mayor of Maribyrnong, Cr Michael Clarke acknowledges there is still work to be done to continue to raise the bar in community satisfaction.
“Council has put a great deal of focus and effort into improving the satisfaction of our local community and to achieve a record high in overall satisfaction is a fantastic outcome and cements our ranking in the middle of high performing metropolitan councils.
“We’ve heard the communities concerns and understand the areas they wants to see continued improvement in and we will be working to address these to ensure this upward trend continues.”
Services with the highest level of satisfaction include library services, weekly garbage collection, fortnightly recycling and green waste collection, provision and maintenance of playgrounds, services for children from birth to four as well as for older people, and provision and maintenance of parks and gardens.
Average satisfaction with services and facilities also continues to trend upwards with substantial increases over the past decade in relation to maintenance and cleaning of Footscray CBD, street trees, parking enforcement, economic development and public toilets.
Despite both decreasing in importance due to COVID-19, car parking and traffic management remain key issues for the community, along with parks, gardens and open spaces, road maintenance and repairs, and cleanliness of the local area.
800 randomly selected households took part in the Annual Survey whose timing and method of delivery were both impacted by COVID-19. Phone interviews replaced the traditional face-to-face approach and were conducted in October and November 2020 as opposed to August.
The Annual Community Survey (ACS) is a requirement of all local governments in Victoria. Conducted by Metropolis Research, the state-wide report enables councils and communities to view the overall findings and trends for service areas covered in the survey.