Shellharbour citizens’ satisfaction with their council has continued to decline over the past six years, and only half say they are happy with the council’s performance.
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The results of the council’s 2016 community survey also reveal residents are equally concerned about the pending merger and the cost of the new Shellharbour civic centre, and a declining satisfaction with the way the council spends their rates.
The Iris Research survey of 510 randomly selected residents, conducted in the third week of April this year, shows the “overall satisfaction” with Shellharbour council is six points below the NSW benchmark for similar councils.
Shellharbour exceeded the state benchmarks in 13 categories including staff performance, maintenance of cycleways, youth services, public swimming pools and sporting fields.
However, the council was rated well below other councils for kerbside garbage collection and several points below average for recycling collection, libraries and the appearance of public areas.
In the “councillor performance” category, less than a third (30.3 per cent) of respondents said they were satisfied with the work of their local representatives, and 91 per cent said they had had no contact with councillors in the past 12 months.
Asked to name their major issues of concern, 22 per cent of respondents chose the pending amalgamation with Wollongong.
An almost equal number of respondents (21.7 per cent) said they were worried about “wasting money/the hub”, and 16.6 per cent named upkeep and roads as an issue.
Only a quarter of those surveyed believed they were getting “good value” from their rates.
The results were adopted with minimal debate at last week’s meeting, with councillor John Murray saying the council was doing well considering the threat of a merger. Likewise, councillor Kellie Marsh said she thought the the council “did exceptionally well”.
Considering the threats to the organisation, I think we’re doing particularly well at the moment.
- Councillor John Murray