'Room to improve' for council in response to survey

Throughout the month of September, more than 800 residents – from both urban and rural areas – were asked to score council facilities and provide feedback on what the local governing body could improve on.

City Treasurer Trevina Schwarz said residents were least satisfied with the amount of public transport throughout the region, as well as road maintenance in the area.

Parks, playgrounds, cemeteries and libraries were noted as the most satisfactory council facilities.

“It’s important to know where council is doing great, and what facilities and services we can improve,” councillor Schwarz said.

“We’ve increased the roads maintenance budget every year in response to the results of this survey, as well as we have for parks – plus we can see what other facilities council needs to put funding towards in the 2017 to 2018 budget.

“I think it’s a disservice to the public to say that we’ve hit the bench mark, when there’s always room to improve.”

The survey also revealed that supporting local business, attracting new business, protecting bushland and wildlife, waste collection, disaster management, and undertaking community safety programs were high priorities for residents.

“Everything seems to be trending upwards in terms of satisfaction, but there is always room for improvement,” councillor Schwarz said.

Mayor Luke Smith said he was pleased with the survey results – in its sixth year.

“Council returned its most impressive results to date (...) so we are very pleased that the people surveyed this time around have continued to say we are doing a good job,” he said.

“What’s really pleasing for me is that the satisfaction with Logan’s performance in 22 out of 26 key service areas – including waste collection, community consultation and parking enforcement – was better than other comparable metropolitan councils.”