City of Albany community survey results reveal strong support for weeknight extended and Sunday trading

The people of Albany have voiced strong support for Sunday trading with 80 per cent of more than 11,000 residents voting in favour of it. The community survey run by Catalyst Research ran from May 6-31 with 8076 residents taking part via an open link on the City of Albany’s website and a further 2943 completing the survey via a closed link sent to a controlled group of residents. The results released by the City of Albany on Wednesday showed a clear winner in the Sunday trading debate with 80 per cent of open link respondents and 78 per cent of closed link respondents in favour. Support for weeknight extended trading was similarly strong with 80 per cent of open link respondents and 73 per cent of closed link respondents in favour. Further surveys of young people aged 15-18 and businesses showed comparable results with 81 per cent of the 346 young people surveyed by the City of Albany in favour of Sunday trading and 76 per cent of businesses surveyed by the Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry also in favour. Young people were particularly supportive of weeknight extended trading with 86 per cent in favour while businesses were 75 per cent in favour. The tourism industry was strongly in favour with 86 per cent saying yes to Sunday trading and 85 per cent yes to weeknight extended trading. Responses from the community groups, however, were mixed. Of the 15 groups surveyed by the City of Albany, 40 per cent said Sunday trading would not affect them, 33 per cent said it would impact them negatively and 27 per cent said it would positively impact them. Weeknight extended trading had less impact on community groups with 47 per cent indicating no impact, 33 per cent positive impact, and 20 per cent negative impact. Mayor Greg Stocks said the volume of survey responses, which far exceeded the city’s hoped-for sample size of 3000, indicated “it was absolutely the right time to go back to community on this important topic”. The council will decide whether to apply to Albany MLA Rebecca Stephens to request a change to Albany’s retail trading hours at the ordinary council meeting on June 25. The mayor said the survey results would help the council make this decision in line with residents’ “needs and preferences”. “It is now up to the council to analyse the data in front of them and make an informed decision about whether to make a change to Albany’s retail trading hours, or not,” he said. Mayor Stocks also addressed concerns that respondents could complete the open survey link multiple times, acknowledging that attempts at survey manipulation came from both sides but non-genuine results were “cleansed”. Albany is one of two WA cities without year-round Sunday trading for general retail along with the City of Karratha. The city’s neighbouring shires of Denmark and Plantagenet each allow Sunday trading, as does Manjimup further to the west and Katanning in the upper Great Southern.