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A new comprehensive study from the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) has found that public satisfaction in the performance of Queensland councils is on the rise.
The findings were published in the 2015 Community Satisfaction Tracking Study, which is commissioned by the LGAQ every two years, with Morton Consulting Services and Market Facts conducting the survey by canvassing the opinions of 700 households across the state.
It is the 10th in a series that analyses community satisfaction and determines benchmarks for council performance.
But the big triumph for councils is that the latest survey underlines a significant increase in people’s approval of how local governments are coordinating their service delivery, making their performance rating the highest since 2005.
According to the study, councils have been scored high in doing a better job of delivering core services such as building and maintaining roads, footpaths, kerbing and guttering, and providing parking facilities and public transport.
The study also found people were more satisfied with their council’s performance in environmental and heritage protection, making communities safer and animal control.
LGAQ President Margaret de Wit said councils are to be commended on the improvements we have seen in this latest survey.
“To record such improvement at a time when it has never been a more difficult environment for local government to operate in deserves a pat on the back for our councils,” Ms de Wit said.
While local governments have been struggling to meet demands from communities since the 2014-15 Budget put a freeze on indexation in Financial Assistance Grants (FAG), the LGAQ has acknowledged that councils have worked hard to achieve more with less.
Respondents to the survey put councils on the fringes of Queensland’s metropolitan southeast at the top of the overall performance rating, scoring well in categories such as basic services and infrastructure, community lifestyle services, management and quality of council.
The survey also recorded a substantial improvement in the performance of provincial councils since 2011, in particular their ability to manage their shires, regions or cities.
Although community satisfaction of the performance of rural councils has improved since the last survey, still remains below the state average as drought and pest and weed incursions continue to grip the outback.
Ms de Wit urged councils to take note of the performance measures respondents believed were priorities, including attracting new economic activity, minimising rates increases, delivering on promises and quality of basic advocacy and leadership.
“The LGAQ’s role is to help councils deliver more for their communities and we will continue to work with all 77 councils across the State to help them deliver even better results next time,” Ms de Wit said.
She said the rural and remote councils are working hard to deliver under the most dire circumstances of drought which has been devastating their communities for years in many cases.
