Survey leaves questions unanswered for Stratford woman

The Stratford District Council building.

A Stratford woman says she has been left with unanswered questions after completing Stratford District Council's Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Debbie McKinlay spoke at the public forum at the start of September's Council meeting.

Debbie said when she filled in the 2018/19 customer satisfaction survey she raised direct concerns about some facilities, and asked specific questions on the form.

She said despite her direct questions, she hadn't received a response from Council.

"I asked questions about the Midhirst water leak, the TET Stadium and the total cost of doing the rubbish in Eltham and what is happening with the land now."

Director of community services Kate Whareaitu says the intent of the customer satisfaction survey is to get high-level feedback across all Council services from the community.

"Due to the volume of survey feedback it takes weeks to analyse the data and frequently there is not enough context provided to identify the actual problem. It is impractical to respond to each and every survey and there are other ways to engage with Council to find out detailed information."

Kate says staff will make sure future Council surveys clearly identify that they are for information gathering only, and outline the best ways to let Council know about any immediate issues that require attention.

Debbie says she understands that it is a survey, but she believes it was a chance for the public to raise questions or concerns.

"I feel that this is probably the one time all people would have a say or comment on the town."

As well as having questions left unanswered, Debbie says she is disappointed to see little or no action taken on some of the concerns she raised.

She says her survey responses highlighted issues with the signage for the Three Bridges walkway, the state of the footpath in the Rhododendron Dell and the length of the grass in the cemetery.

"The grass is not being mowed very regularly and when it was it had gotten so long that it had all gone up against the graves and actually died off and looked really messy. It was everywhere and it really looked quite disgusting."

Debbie says it is important for a town to look nice, and she believes Council should be ensuring it does.

"Stratford is going to have a whole lot of Rhododendron Festival visitors coming to town soon. You're going to have people come up and look at that park and those signs. It's not impressive for our town."

Speaking at the meeting, was another way to make sure she was heard, she says,

"I feel like I've let it go through the proper channels to start with but I thought it's been three months and I go up to the Dell and I'm still looking at this disgusting footpath."

Kate says if someone has an urgent issue they are encouraged to contact Council directly by phone, email or in person.

"By contacting council directly, the request flows into council's service request system, and is forwarded to the relevant department or contractor to investigate and take action."