2026 Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey results
Published on 19 June 2026
In this year’s Victorian Community Satisfaction Survey (CSS) results, Council’s performance received an overall score of 41 out of 100, a decline in five points from last year’s results.
The CSS is an independent annual survey that asks the views of local people about the place they live, work and play.
Council’s Mayor, Cr Tony Clark, said that we are not hiding from the results.
“Council’s CSS results for 2026 are underwhelming, but we expected that given the number of major changes Council has implemented in the last 12-18 months to ensure financial sustainability. We know the community is not satisfied with our performance because that’s what they’ve been telling us over the last year or so,” he said.
“With a small team and financial limitations, we have been working hard to focus our efforts on our lowest performing areas from 2025 and committed to continued transparency, maintaining sealed roads and refining processes in the Planning and Building department. And this year, we saw an increase in satisfaction with sealed local roads, waste management and customer service.”
Planning and building permits remain Council’s lowest performing service area but perception of service remained steady in 2025, following a four-year period of decline.
“Despite a poor rating in the planning category, we have seen a 30 per cent reduction in the number of active permit applications in the last six months, a result made possible by the rollout of several new initiatives and our fully resourced planning team,” said Cr Clark.
Positively, perceptions of Council have improved when it comes to waste management and Council is also seen to perform well relatively well in its customer service.
“We are working hard to improve services and transparency. These survey results only spur us on to continue to show up every day for our community and do the best job we possibly can. It’s just going to take time,” said Cr Clark.
Read the CSS report(PDF, 3MB).