Results of a community survey conducted on behalf of Cessnock City Council clearly show that residents want to be involved in the long term planning for the LGA. Almost 50 per cent of participants indicated that they would like to be involved in planning for the future.
The survey which was held in August this year involved a series of questions being asked of 500 residents across the LGA.
"Early next year, Council will start an extensive community consultation program on the development of our long term strategic plan and 46 per cent of participants in this survey indicated they were interested in contributing to the development of the plan," General Manager, Bernie Mortomore said. "This is very encouraging for Council as we are keen to get as many people as possible from across the LGA involved in the development of the plan."
Not so encouraging were the survey responses about roads. The results clearly demonstrated that the residents' major concern in the LGA is the condition of our roads. The survey found that 41 per cent of the respondents regarded road maintenance as the highest priority issue within the LGA. This result flowed through to the highest priorities over the next 20 years being identified as road maintenance (35 per cent), unemployment (25 per cent), planning and development (21 per cent) and health services and facilities (18 per cent).
"Almost 50 per cent of respondents were satisfied with Council's performance over the past 12 months but it was very, very clear that our residents are unhappy with our road network," Mr Mortomore said. "In truth, Council is not happy with some of our road network, however our hands are tied to a certain extent because of budgetary constraints and a lack of funding."
"Council has continued and will continue to lobby the state and federal governments and apply for additional funding for road reconstruction and maintenance. Quite simply we have almost 1,000 kilometres of roads in our LGA and already Council's budget is stretched to the limit."
"What was very pleasing in the survey results was that in several areas, Council is obviously hitting the mark. Services and facilities such as the Libraries, the Performing Arts Centre, cemetery management, and recycling and waste reduction are all highly regarded by our community members," Mr Mortomore said.
"I encourage everyone across the LGA to be involved in our wider community consultation next year and to give Council their ideas on how they see our area developing into the future. Council wants and needs to know the directions residents wish us to pursue because our long term strategic plan must reflect the wishes of our community."
The results of the community survey are on Council's website, www.cessnock.nsw.gov.au
