Nambucca Valley Council’s Community Satisfaction Survey to begin in February Nambucca Valley Nambucca Valley - popup ad by News Of The Area - Modern Media - January 30, 2024 Unsealed roads in the Nambucca Valley were the issue with which residents felt the least degree of satisfaction with Council in the 2021 survey. NAMBUCCA Valley Council will spend $24,900 on a community satisfaction survey to be conducted by Sydney-based Taverner Research Group (TRG) in the first half of 2024. A draft of this survey was presented to Council members at the general meeting last Thursday. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au The last survey of this nature, also conducted by TRG, was held over nine days in December of 2021. TRG employed eight people on a part-time basis to call 400 adult residents of the Nambucca Valley before results were analysed and presented to Council. Most councils periodically carry out satisfaction surveys and according to 2019 budget estimates, Coffs Harbour City Council (now City of Coffs Harbour) expected to spend $35,000 on its survey of approximately 500 residents in 2020. The questions for this next survey of adult Nambucca Valley residents are largely the same as the ones presented in 2021, with several alterations. The previous survey highlighted community dissatisfaction was highest on the matter of unsealed roads in the region. Other points of analysis were that the community considers river water quality and sealed roads should be of highest priority. Each survey is compared with previous surveys and it was noted that overall satisfaction with Council fell to a mean score of 3.3 in 2021, down from a score of 3.43. These scores are also benchmarked against other councils surveyed by TRG to find if this level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is considered high or low when compared to other councils. According to the TRG report, Nambucca Valley Council’s level of community satisfaction in 2021 was slightly above the mean for its regional peers. Another analysis looks at where Council needs to spend money to increase community satisfaction by using a formula which looks at the mean of scores that respondents have given to determine what areas have highest priority yet lowest satisfaction in the eyes of the community. By this scale, although unsealed roads received the lowest satisfaction, they were not considered a high priority by the community and therefore were unlikely to receive extra funding. In its meeting last Thursday, Nambucca Valley Council moved to adopt the draft submitted subject to any amendments and engage the Taverner Research Group to conduct the survey in February 2024. By Ned COWIE
