Mosman community rates council more highly

Mosman Council has again recorded strong results in its latest biennial Community Survey with improvements in community satisfaction recorded across key result areas.

“It’s pleasing to see Mosman Council rates above the benchmark for overall community satisfaction when compared against other councils in NSW. We also rate above the benchmark for 13 of the 22 council services on which comparable satisfaction data is available,” Mosman Mayor Peter Abelson said.

“This biennial community survey provides a snapshot of council’s perceived performance and also helps us plan for the future, by highlighting areas of ongoing attention, such as traffic management, managing development, car parking and roads and footpath maintenance.

“Council has already responded to previous surveys by putting in place an accelerated asset renewal and maintenance program and has responded to high expectations of communication and consultation by devoting further resources to this area over the last few years.”

Key findings from the 2016 survey, conducted by independent market researchers in late April, include:

• Satisfaction with Mosman Council’s overall performance has improved with each biennial survey since 2012 and remains above the benchmark for NSW Councils

• Satisfaction with the overall performance of both councillors and council staff has also progressively increased since 2012 and

• Residents’ perception of the ‘value for money’ delivered by council services has also continued to climb.

“As a barometer of community sentiment this year’s independent research clearly shows that, while there’s always room for further improvement, resident satisfaction with council performance remains strong,” Cr Abelson said. “Once again the evidence shows that Mosman Council is fit and healthy and deserves to remain independent.”

The issues most commonly quoted by survey respondents over the next 5-10 years include council amalgamations (32%), traffic (28%), development (10%), lack of infrastructure (9%) and parking (5%).

The survey also sought information on community needs and aspirations, social connectedness and quality of life and found community pride and connectedness results are healthy. Community safety has rated particularly highly, while scores for other social capital indicators such as friendly neighbourhoods, socialising in the local area and feelings of community belonging have remained steady since 2014.

The aspects of living in Mosman most valued by residents are beautiful natural environment (27%), community feel (25%), convenient/proximity to amenities (18%), ambient/peaceful atmosphere (14%) and beaches (10%).