The 2025 Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey, based on phone interviews with 400 residents from January to March, captured perceptions towards Moira Shire Council’s performance across five areas.
This year, perceptions of council’s overall performance remained steady at 38 points, the equal lowest level in 10 years.
Although waste management remains the council’s top-rated service area, perceptions towards it have dropped dramatically from 60 index points to an all-time low of 38 points.
Council acting chief executive Bryan Sword said the stabilisation of overall performance was a positive step forward after reaching a low point in 2024, which reflects council’s approach to leadership, communication and collaboration with the community.
“We acknowledge community concerns about waste management after we went through one of the most substantial service transitions that council has seen in a long time,” he said.
“While satisfaction scores recorded during the survey period in January to March did show a decline, which aligned with the timing of this transition, we are now seeing the positive outcomes from these changes, including a 21 per cent decrease in landfill waste and a 36 per cent increase in organics collection.”
Although perceptions of the council’s overall performance remained the same as last year, more people said the council’s overall direction in the past 12 months had deteriorated (37 per cent) than last year (31 per cent).
Looking further, the condition of sealed roads remains the council’s lowest performing area, with 35 per cent rating the condition of roads as ‘very poor’.
Customer service, parks and gardens, and community engagement were ranked as the best things about council.
The Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey is voluntary, with 56 out of 79 councils in Victoria opting to take part in this year’s research.
Responses were collected by consultancy JWS Research from January 28 to March 16.
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