By Ewen McRae
Community satisfaction with Melton council’s performance has dropped in the past 12 months, according to a new survey.
The annual community survey on a variety of council performance areas shows overall satisfaction with the council has slipped by 3.5 per cent in the past 12 months, with a score of 6.87 compared to last year’s score of 7.12.
The score is considered in the ‘good’ range, compared to other councils.
The survey found the most common issues were traffic management, with 25.4 per cent of respondents citing this as an issue.
Safety, policing and crime-related issues were a concern for 11.4 per cent of respondents, almost double the metropolitan average of 6.3 per cent. However, the result was a significant drop in local concern – in 2017, 31.8 per cent of respondents raised these issues.
More than 20 per cent of respondents this year said they felt unsafe in public areas at night.
A council report about the survey stated while overall satisfaction was down, the results were still strong for the council.
“The 2019 survey results indicate that council is performing comparatively well and in line with the metropolitan Melbourne and growth area councils’ averages,” the report stated. “This is following on from the unusually large increase in satisfaction recorded in 2018.”
