Yarra City Council is committed to best serving our community and using an evidence-based approach to improve Council services and operations.

Each year we conduct an extensive survey of households in Yarra to measure satisfaction levels with Council performance, including leadership and governance and our range of services and facilities, as well as determining emerging issues and priorities.

Participating households are randomly selected from across the municipality. These survey results are used to inform our planning and operations.

2024 process

Council's customer satisfaction survey process follows best-practice research standards and is in line with Local Government Victoria's annual community satisfaction survey. This enables better comparative analysis of Yarra's results across the local government sector.

The latest  2024 Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey [ PDF, 3.57 MB] (PDF 3.57 MB) was conducted from January and February 2024 by AEC Research. Surveys were done by telephone, online and face-to-face. This year, 800 households participated in the survey.

Respondents were asked to rate their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5. These scores are presented as a percentage across the following 3 categories:

1. Good/Very good (%)
2. Average (%)
3. Poor/Very poor (%)

The 2024 customer satisfaction survey results highlight the areas where Council is seen to be performing well along with several areas in need of improvement.

2024 results

Overall performance

Satisfaction with Council's overall performance was classified 'very good' or 'good' by 40% of the respondents. Another 35% rated performance as 'average' and 25% of people rated performance as 'poor' or 'very poor'. These results are comparable to 2023.

Services and facilities

Yarra's services and facilities rated favourably with many rated as 'very good' or 'good' by more than half of surveyed residents.

Our 5 highest rated services and facilities in 2024 were:

The 3 areas that were rated 'very good' or 'good' by the least number of residents were:

1. Traffic management (41% very good or good)
2. Parking management (37% very good or good)
3. Public toilets (35% very good or good)

Leadership and governance

Generally, lower levels of community satisfaction were reported with Council's governance and leadership, including:

• Community engagement and consultation (40% 'very good' or 'good')
• Making decisions in the best interests of the community (38% 'very good' or 'good')
• Lobbying and advocacy on behalf of the community (33% 'very good' or 'good')

Customer Service

Satisfaction with customer service was rated above average with 62% rating customer service as 'very good/good'.

Perceptions of Safety

Perceptions of safety were higher during the day than at night. While 80% of respondents reported feeling safe during the day, only 46% reported feeling safe at night.

Top 3 issues in 2024

Respondents were asked to nominate what they consider to be the top 3 issues for Yarra City Council.

The top 3 issues identified in 2024 were:

1. Building, planning and housing development (noted by 12% of respondents)
2. Car parking (noted by 7% of respondents)
3. Traffic management (noted by 7% of respondents)

Improvements observed by residents in the last 2 years

• Parks, gardens and open space (observed by 13% of respondents)
• Bike/walking tracks and facilities (observed by 9% of respondents)
• Community activities and events (observed by 4% of respondents)

Improvements our residents would most like to see in the future

• Parking (suggested by 13% of respondents)
• Bike tracks, facilities and infrastructure (suggested by 11% of respondents)
• Parks, gardens and open space (suggested by 10% of respondents)

Read the full report

Download the full  2024 Annual Customer Satisfaction Report [ PDF, 3.57 MB] .

For more information call Yarra City Council on 03 9205 5555 or email [email protected].