Manningham’s performance in the Annual Community Satisfaction Survey result has remained reasonably stable and generally higher than the State wide average in most survey areas.

Manningham Mayor, Cr Paul McLeish, has welcomed the survey results that provide feedback about Council’s performance and some insights into ways to provide improved and more effective services.

“We always welcome feedback from our community about what is important to them and where improvements are needed. While some of our results have remained stable or slightly declined compared to other councils in our Metro group, I am confident we’ll see further improvements in coming years. We have and will continue to take the necessary steps to address some of the issues residents have told us need more attention”.

Manningham Council was compared against other Councils in the Metro group and on a State-wide basis in the annual Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey which addressed these seven core areas:

• Overall performance - Overall performance during the  last 12 months
• Advocacy - Lobbying on behalf of the community
• Consultation - Community consultation and engagement
• Contact - Contact in the last 12 months
• Customer service - Rating of contact
• Council direction - Overall council direction during the last 12 months
• Making community decisions - Decisions made in the interest of the community
• Sealed local roads - the condition of sealed roads in your area.

In 2016, Council recorded an Overall Performance Index Score of 65, which is one index point lower than the Metro group and six index points higher than the State-wide result.

In addition to the core areas above, Council surveys residents about three individual services – Waste Management, Elderly Support Services and Environmental Sustainability. Council continues to perform well in these three service areas, achieving a significantly higher score than both the State-wide and Metro averages in Waste Management, and roughly similar results to the State-wide and Metro averages in the other two service areas.

Council also asked residents about what it most needed to do to improve its performance. Interestingly, the percentage of residents who said Council needed to do “nothing” was the same as for “sealed road maintenance”, both at 12 per cent of responses. Other key improvement areas highlighted included “Communication” at 11 per cent, “Development – Inappropriate” at 10 per cent, “Public Transport” at 9 per cent, “Community Consultation” and Financial Management both at 8 per cent, and “Footpaths/Walking Tracks” at 6 per cent.

A number of these areas are already being improved through more investment and / or placing a higher priority on these service areas. For example:

• Manningham’s roads continue to be one of the highest priorities for Council. That is why, over the last four years, Council has more than doubled its investment from $3.2 million (2012/13) to $6.8 million (2016/17), up by $3.6 million, in refurbishing and upgrading its road network. In addition, in 2016/17, Council is spending $3.5 million on renewing road related infrastructure such as kerb and channelling, footpaths, signage and street furniture.
• Council will be reviewing how it communicates with residents and ratepayers. This will include more opportunities for showcasing community achievements and key community organisations through Council’s mainstream communication channels and improving more direct communication with the Manningham community.
• Council is continuing to invest in footpath improvements and walking tracks. In 2014/15, a new pedestrian footbridge was installed over the Mullum Mullum Creek to create a 4.5 kilometre off-road walking circuit and extend shared/bicyle paths. In 2016/17, almost $1 million will be invested in new footpath construction as part of Council’s longer-term Principal Pedestrian Network commitment. A further $1.68 million is being invested in constructing the Mullum Mullum Trail from Park Road to Heads Road in Park Orchards and Donvale.
• As a result of Council’s strong financial management, this year’s average residential rate increase will be 1.17 per cent lower than for the equivalent bill in 2015/16. Over the term of this Council, the average annual rate increase has been only 2.73 per cent compared to 4.5 per cent of the four year term of the previous Council. These savings were achieved without cutting back on services and investing in infrastructure and community facilities.
• While Council is performing very well in the area of Waste Services, we have continued to work hard to provide a more cost effective service requiring less maintenance and further efforts to divert more waste from landfill.
• Likewise, while Council is performing very well in the area of customer service, we will be making substantial investments to improve the ease with which we resolve customer enquiries and general service delivery requests.

The annual survey also provides Council with a means to fulfil a number of statutory reporting requirements and acts as a feedback mechanism to Local Government Victoria (LGV).