A community advocate does not believe Wyndham council’s most recent community satisfaction survey is an accurate reflection of more than 330,000 people’s opinions.
City of Wyndham Action Group spokesperson Trish Barcatta said the Community Satisfaction Survey, conducted by Metropolis Research for the last 12 years, relies on too small a sample size.
A total of 5765 households were approached to participate in the survey, from which 1204 provided responses.
“We are in a city of over 330,000 people and they only gathered results from 1204 households,” Ms Barcatta said.
“They use that data to say that the whole of the city is satisfied and just not true – all you have to do is look at social media comments to see why people truly think.
“I’ve never had anyone knock on my door in the past 12 years –nor has anyone I know.”
Ms Barcatta said she has repeatedly contacted council in the last three years requesting it revises the survey’s methodology.
“We have approached them several times asking them to expand the scope of their methodology to include more residents and they’ve done nothing,” she said.
Ms Barcatta also said The Loop, council’s resident feedback portal, is inadequate.
“Whenever they [the council] put something on The Loop they ask very specific questions, but they don’t really give them an open forum to actually explain how they feel and justify it.
“But if anyone dares to say they don’t actually agree or want something, they just turn around and say it’s only one person – they have said that to me.”
“They don’t like you asking questions that go beyond their carefully crafted ones.
A Wyndham spokesperson said council has full confidence in the survey results, which the spokesperson said are statistically valid.
“The number of respondents is considered one of the largest of the 79 local government areas, especially considering that the state government requirement is a sample size of 400 per year,” the spokesperson said.
