2022-01-17 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                               17 JANUARY 2022


Public Opinion - Additional Questions developed by Council
Included in the survey were several additional Council specific questions relating to disaster
management, existing services, communication channels and customer requests, lifestyle,
challenges, sense of community and climate change. The findings from responses to these
questions are summarised as follows:
•    Preparedness for a Disaster or Emergency - Nearly two thirds (65.8%) of respondents in
     2021 are prepared for a disaster or emergency and have an emergency plan. In 2019, 66%
     of respondents had a disaster management plan in place for a flood or fire, compared to
     59.7% in 2017.
•    77.3% of respondents (compared to 88% in 2019 and 86% in 2017) indicated that they
     preferred that Council ‘leave things as they are’ when trying to strike a balance between
     providing the best possible service and operating within its financial means. While 14.5%
     indicated that they would be prepared to pay more through their rates for an
     improved/increased level of service, compared to 9.3% in 2019.
•    Satisfaction with service levels
     -     62.6% of respondents rated answering phone calls as good and very good
     -     45.3% rated contact with Council’s Tewantin Office as good or very good
     -     36.7% rated email and online enquiries as good or very good
     -     28.8% rated return of calls as promised as good or very good
     -     82% rated after hours emergency services as good or very good
     -     30.9% rated acknowledgement of written correspondence as good or very good
     -     43.1% rated handling complaints as good or very good
     -     55.4% rated effectiveness in responding to requests as good or very good.
•    Chosen method for communication – the most popular method to seek information from
     Council about a project or an issue was Council’s website (35.5%) followed by local
     newspaper (29.3%) and social media (Facebook) (25%).
•    Lifestyle and quality of community – The three most important things with regards to lifestyle,
     and the quality of the community were:
     -     access to amenities facilities/services, recreation (47%)
     -     environment clean, healthy, amenity, maintenance (35.5%)
     -     traffic/transport (roads, maintenance, access, safety) (12.8%).
•    A large proportion of respondents (88.8%) were either satisfied (29.3%) or completely
     satisfied (59.5%) regarding feeling part of their community, compared to 76.1% in 2019.

Conclusion
The 2021 community satisfaction tracking survey is a follow up to the 2019 survey and 2017
benchmark study for Noosa Shire Council. In 2021, Council is performing below the results for
2019. In 2021 the Average Total Performance Index (TPI) for the survey was calculated at 72.07%
(74.59% in 2019 and 73.24% in 2017) and community sentiment, compared to two years ago, is
generally considered less positive. As further evidence of this, other similar councils who have
recently completed community satisfaction surveys have also recorded fewer positive results. In
relative terms Noosa’s TPI of 72.07% is also quite high, so while in 2021 a lower result has been
achieved Noosa Council is continuing to achieve results above the Queensland norm for similar
sized provincial councils.
The 2021 survey results show that while the results are lower than previous years, the community
is satisfied with Council’s performance.




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