Council election year ‘satisfaction’ survey

Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au

THE first quarterly community satisfaction survey for 2024 will be held across the Mornington Peninsula late this month and in early February.

Residents will be phoned and visited door-to-door and asked to answer questions about Mornington Peninsula Council services by Metropolis Research.

The outcome of the survey could influence the election campaigns and voters’ opinions of candidates in the October council elections.

The elections will also be notable as the shire will be then have 11 single-councillor wards, with five new ward names being added to the existing six.

The mayor Cr Simon Brooks said “feedback” from the survey was “integral” to how council services were delivered across the peninsula.

A news release from the shire stated that survey “has been designed to assess our ongoing performance to identify areas of service improvement”.

The 400 interviews in the 15-minute survey would be conducted with a “representative sample of residents”.

Metropolis Research officers would carry an ID card and Metropolis Research shoulder bag and “will not enter your home, nor will they ask to use your toilet, ask for a drink”.

“The survey will take up to 15-minutes to complete and we will use the feedback to assist us in improving our services to the community,” the news release stated.

Council’s decision to appoint Mertropolis followed two consecutive years of poor satisfaction survey results.

This month’s survey comes on the heels of widespread opposition to councillors agreeing to allow an interactive Harry Potter-based event in the wildlife sanctuary at The Briars, Mount Martha and their debates over establishing a costly “transparency and integrity hub” (All clear for transparency hub, The News 8/1/24).

The surveys which showed the poor results for the shire were made on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (Shire again misses survey satisfaction, The News 21/6/23). The results of the next four surveys - including the one starting this month – will be sent to the department for its annual municipal perfortmance report.

The shire was rated at an “all-time low” in 2022, with the following survey registering an overall performance score of 50, three less than in the previous one.

When appointing Metropolis in mid-2022 then mayor Cr Steve Holland said it was “simply a new provider using a slightly different methodology to do the same annual survey” (‘Satisfaction’ surveys start this week, The News 11/7/23).

Previous results for the shire at: mornpen.vic.gov.au/communitysurvey