Wyndham council is talking up the success of its Get Wyndham Moving campaign despite a recent survey showing community awareness of the campaign has declined.
Of the 800 respondents to the council’s annual community survey, only 26.9 per cent were familiar with the campaign, down from 34 per cent in the previous year.
The $2 million campaign has been designed to lobby the state government for road, rail and bus upgrades to tackle issues of congestion around the municipality.
Council chief executive Kelly Grigsby said the organisation was “delighted” with the “high level of resident awareness” that the campaign had achieved.
“The awareness has been pivotal to our advocacy that has achieved significant wins in the recent state budget.”
She said the first year of the two-year campaign focused on building awareness of the issues while building partnerships to achieve results.
“As the campaign moved into year two, we have worked on a number of initiatives to ease congestion, including expanding active school travel, community car-pooling, the Regional Rail Link, car and bicycle parking at train stations,” Ms Grigsby said.
Residents’ overall satisfaction with the council is on the rise, up 9.6 per cent on the previous year. Satisfaction with governance and leadership also rose by 7.06 per cent.
Important issues
The most important issues in need of action, according to residents, were traffic management, road maintenance and repairs, and issues around parks, gardens and open spaces.
Ms Grigsby said the results demonstrated council’s commitment to community engagement and consultation.
“This has made us more accessible to residents and we are demonstrating that we really do listen to their concerns and want them to be involved in helping us make Wyndham a great place,” she said.
She listed portfolio committees, community panels and listening posts as some of the ways council engaged with residents.
