Community satisfaction increases as major projects are delivered throughout the city

Independent research shows community satisfaction with City of Newcastle (CN) has increased progressively since 2012, correlating with increased investment in capital works of almost 200 per cent in the same period.

CN undertakes a quarterly Community Survey to understand key issues, obtain community input to inform decision making, and measure satisfaction with the services and facilities it provides.

The latest results show that in 2020 and 2021, satisfaction with CN's overall performance rose to 55% and 61% respectively, up from 41% in 2019. Dissatisfied or very dissatisfied fell from 36% to just 13% during the same period. The mean satisfaction score in the 2021 survey is a favourable 3.7 out of 5.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said City of Newcastle’s leadership team and staff have remained focused on delivering projects in line with Newcastle 2030, City of Newcastle’s Community Strategic Plan (CSP), particularly amidst the challenging COVID-19 period.

“City of Newcastle has delivered The Bathers Way, Stockton Active Hub, Blackbutt Reserve upgrade and improved cycleways throughout the city, demonstrating our commitment to supporting our growing population with key infrastructure renewal and revitalisation projects,” Cr Nelmes said.

“We have continually met the objectives set out in our Community Strategic Plan, Newcastle 2030, which was developed based on extensive community consultation and has guided each and every project delivered under record capital works budgets in recent years.

"I'm also incredibly proud of the way City of Newcastle's staff have adapted to COVID-19 restrictions in order to continue delivering for the community while coming up with meaningful ways to support vulnerable people and the local economy.

"During the early and uncertain days of the pandemic, we responded quickly to our community's needs by implementing an award winning $5 million community and economic resilience package, along with additional investment in infrastructure to support 700 jobs.

"This year, we're committed to continuing that support and recently announced a $10 million increase to our 2021/22 works program to help create more than 100 new jobs in the local government area and increase total economic output by more than $27 million.”

City of Newcastle regularly seeks opinions and ideas from the community across a range of topics from parks, playgrounds, beaches and ocean baths, to events, heritage, climate action and cycling.

In the past year, City of Newcastle has received feedback from over 20,000 people across 33 projects.

The 2021 Winter Quarterly Community Survey was carried out by Woolcott Research and Engagement, using a combination of random telephone surveying and online surveying. In total 409 people completed the survey from across the local government area, allowing CN to report the results at a 95% confidence level, with accurate representation in terms of respondent age, location and gender.

The survey report can be downloaded at newcastle.nsw.gov.au/quarterly-community-survey

Areas with strong improvement in satisfaction since 2016: