Strong Result in Community Satisfaction Survey
Published on 21 July 2023
Mansfield Shire Council has achieved a strong result in the 2023 Community Satisfaction Survey. Now in its 24th year, the survey is a reliable historical source of the community’s views and a consistent long-term measure of Council performance.
Although survey results for Victorian Councils generally declined this year, Council’s overall performance was rated at 59, higher than the average of like shires across the State (55) and higher than the state-wide average (56).
Mayor Cr James Tehan said that planning for the future remains a key focus for Mansfield Shire, which is supported by the feedback from the survey results this year.
“The survey provides us an opportunity to reflect on how we can improve on our delivery of services and to confirm that our focus areas match our community’s expectations,” said Cr Tehan.
“Council’s top performing area continues to be appearance of public areas with an index score of 82.”
“Art centres and libraries were our second highest rated service area, with this year’s index score of 73 reflecting an increase of two points on last year.”
Other service areas with improved results in 2023 include Tourism Development, Consultation and Engagement, and Parking Facilities.
Planning and Building Permits saw a drop of nine points in the index score from last year (50 to 41) and Unsealed Roads a six point drop (53 to 47).
The survey results indicate that planning related services should remain a key focus of Council, particularly planning for population growth and the management of planning and building permits.
“We know that population growth is important to our community, and we will continue to focus on planning for the future to ensure we maintain the beauty and amenity of our Shire as our population and the demand for housing and services continues,” said Cr Tehan.
“A number of new initiatives were included in the 2023-24 Budget to support this area, including the implementation of the Mansfield Planning Strategy and Commercial and Industrial Land Use Strategy, increased statutory planning resources, and the development of an Infrastructure Plan.”
“We are also undertaking a review of the Sports and Recreation Strategic Plan in response to population growth,” concluded Cr Tehan.
The Community Satisfaction Survey was undertaken by JWS Research in February and March 2023 surveying 400 residents across varying age and gender demographics to gauge the opinions of our community. This year saw 66 of the 79 Victorian councils participate.
Community Satisfaction Survey 2023(PDF, 4MB)