Council calls to gauge satisfaction
WHAT do Sunshine Coast residents want? Your local council wants to know.
This month, Sunshine Coast Council is conducting a phone survey of more than 1000 residents, measuring their satisfaction with a range of council services and seeking views on priorities for future spending.
"Residents will be asked a range of questions to gauge perception and opinions on the importance of services provided by council as well as how satisfied they are with the services provided by council," a council spokeswoman said.
She said specific issues to be addressed in the survey included:
- What local services and facilities are important to you as a resident?
- How satisfied are you with the delivery of services by council?
- In your opinion what are the key community issues that council should address?
IRIS Research has been commissioned to conduct the survey.
"The survey will provide a report card on how well council is achieving the community vision and will help inform progress towards achieving our corporate plan," the spokeswoman said.
"Results from the survey will provide quality data for comparative benchmarking exercises, operational continuous improvement actions, and public access and information.
"This data will inform future budgets, strategic priorities and service planning and delivery."
Residents Association South Sunshine Coast secretary Peter Bryant said their biggest concern was the lack of communication from the council.
"If you can't reach your local councillors, you're fobbed off to the bureaucrats," he said.
Mr Bryant said the council also needed to scrap the Heritage Levy and address duplication of services.
"The Heritage Levy cannot be justified. That's a waste of money," he said.
"There also appears to be a duplication of services.
"They went down to a retirement village to trim a tree causing problems, when they got there the residents said the tree next to it needed trimming.
"The council said they were only authorised to do the one tree. You have to double book."
Mr Bryant said the residents' association believed council needed to reintroduce kerbside rubbish collection.
"It's is one of the things residents are crying out for," he said.
"It's resulting in a considerable amount of dumping of rubbish at charities."
Sunshine Coast Council provides about 150 services.
Survey questions will focus on major service categories including:
- Airport
- Economic Development
- Holiday Parks
- Beaches and foreshores maintenance
- Bushland conservation and habitat
- Cemeteries
- Community and cultural development
- Waste collection and recycling
- Rivers, streams and other waterways
- Performance venues and community halls
- Development approval process
- Public transport programs
- Planning and control of residential ad commercial development
- Major construction projects (roads, bridges, cycle paths, facilities)
- Libraries
- Lifeguards
- Recreational facilities - provision of playgrounds, public toilets, playgrounds, seats and shelters
- Cleaning of recreational facilities - BBQs, litter, graffiti removal
- Aquatic centres
- Indoor and outdoor sporting facilities
- Parks maintenance - mowing, mulching, vegetation control
- Control of declared pests (feral animals, plants and weeds)
- Provision of pathways, bikeways, recreation trails
- Animal control (domestic pets, nuisance animals)
- Health and safety regulation (pool safety, food hygiene)
- Disaster management
- Regulated parking
- Local law enforcement (signs, abandoned vehicles, illegal activities, goods on footpaths)
- Community grants and programs
- Stormwater drains
- Sealed road maintenance
- Unsealed road maintenance
- Footpath maintenance
- Traffic management (signs, line marking, speed controls)
- Streetscape design (lighting, public art)
