Perception of City of Albany falls from high benchmark, but strengths remain in Markyt Community Scorecard

After setting a benchmark as the best-performing regional local government in WA two years ago, results of the recently published 2023 Markyt Community Scorecard have seen the City of Albany fall back to the pack.

They indicate the community has seen no perceived improvement in outcomes across all 44 areas assessed over the last two years.

In the 2021 survey the City received an overall score of 75/100, but results of this year’s survey — conducted in March — indicated the overall score fell to 66 this year.

The overall result was just above the industry average of 64 and City chief executive Andrew Sharpe said results of the survey needed to be considered with “a degree of economic context”.

“The most encouraging aspect of the 2023 community scorecard results for the City is that our day-to-day services and facilities continue to perform above the industry,” he said.

“Feedback that relates to the City’s service to the community is always valuable and taken on board as the City is continuing to strive for improvement.”

The scorecard shows that housing, community safety and crime prevention, health and community services, and sealed roads are the community’s highest priority areas which need to be focused on.

Mr Sharpe said managing expectations about the “limitations of local government and why certain decisions are made” could be an area for improvement.

“As a local government, the City does have limitations within its ability to have an immediate and direct impact within the areas of housing, crime and health services which don’t fall within the City’s jurisdiction,” he said.

“What the City of Albany continue to do is meet with all levels of government, industry leaders and organisations to advocate extremely hard for improvements within these areas that will assist the community and ease these economic pressures as a priority.

“The City encourages the community to work with us on these advocacy topics to ensure the momentum continues until we get the appropriate outcomes.”

A 97 per cent positive “place to live” rating indicated the community’s ongoing pride in Albany, and it was also backed up by an 84 per cent positive rating as a place to own or operate a business.

Mr Sharpe said it was “absolutely” the role of the City to make sure Albany continued being a great place to live while advocating for improvement, but it was also “much more than that”.

“Every facet of the City’s operation is imperative to the overall community perception,” he said.

“The City is not just making sure Albany is a great place to live — it is making sure that residents’ priorities are met and they feel supported in their day-to-day lives.

“The City covers a wide range of services that need maintaining and improving which all have varying levels of priority to each and every resident.

“Our community love where they live, our job is to support them all to continue loving where they live across all stages of their lives.”

Of this year’s 1359 respondents, 28 per cent were over 65, 27 per cent were 14-34, 25 per cent were between 50-64 and the remaining 20 per cent were 35-49.

Areas which received the strongest positive feedback were the provision of library services, sports and recreation facilities and respect of First Nations peoples.

The full scorecard results can be found on the City of Albany’s website at https://bit.ly/3OKiDrL.