Metropolis Research will be responsible for gathering the information throughout March after 2022 surveys were conducted by other market research organisations.
Campaspe Shire’s survey is being conducted via phone calls from the Metropolis Research team throughout this month — to assess the performance of the shire across a range of its services.
The Carlton-based Metropolis Research company has been responsible for producing the major measuring stick for Melbourne’s governance since 2010, through the Governing Melbourne annual community survey report.
Kyabram-Deakin Ward councillor and Deputy Mayor Colleen Gates would have been more than qualified to give her opinion on the company as she was twice Hobson’s Bay City Council mayor when that report was completed.
A pro-active approach to the start of the survey has been taken by the Campaspe Shire Council as the Melbourne-based market research company starts its phone survey of residents.
A Facebook post by council has confirmed that phone calls being made by the research company as “not a scam’’, hoping to avoid phone calls to the shire questioning whether or not the information gathering has been rubber stamped by council.
The post also confirmed “the survey agency will never ask for your financial or banking details — this survey is purely about council service and performance”.
Campaspe Shire Council’s corporate services acting director Matthew McPherson has also assured participants in the Community Satisfaction Survey that all details and individual responses are confidential and anonymous.
“Only the overall results are shared with Campaspe Shire Council and it is envisaged the independent survey company will provide a report back to council by May,” Mr McPherson said.
“Results will assist council to improve its services to the community, so it is important we have the community feedback to help inform that improvement.”
This year’s survey is designed to receive responses from a random representative section of gender, age and locality. It will involve responses from 400 residents, almost double that of the previous year.
Last year 261 residents completed the survey, with 78 from Echuca, 16 from Kyabram, 11 from Rochester, seven from Rushworth, five from Tongala and Lockington, while Torrumbarry, Stanhope, Colbinabbin, Kotta, Wyuna, Bamawm and Moama were also represented.
Overall, the respondents agreed council staff were “doing a good job”, particularly in waste management, libraries and parks and gardens.
Not surprisingly, roads was identified as the biggest area for improvement.
Almost 70 per cent of the participants were aged from 46 to 75 years old, with just 0.7 per cent of those surveyed in the 18 to 30-year-old age bracket.
The survey discovered that the two main reasons people contacted the council were issues related to waste and roads.
The three most popular suggestions were improving roads, maintaining pools, and investing in small towns.
