Results in an independent COVID-19 resilience study of West Australian local governments have shown Cockburn locals feel on average more hopeful and enthusiastic about the future than their Perth and state counterparts.
Cockburn scored 74 per cent in the ‘hopeful’ category, compared to the Perth metropolitan and WA score of 69 per cent.
Local respondents are also happier than the Perth and state average with the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, scoring 70/100 – two points above the metro and state wide tally.
The MARKYT Community Resilience Scorecard study was conducted by Catalyse for the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and Local Government Professionals WA.
Between 5 June and 8 July, 7,666 people from 128 WA local governments participated in the survey, with 449 of those from the City of Cockburn.
The survey results demonstrate a positive reaction from the community to how WA local governments responded to the COVID-19 challenge in general.
A majority of community members believe Local Government demonstrated clear thinking and decision making, showed empathy and compassion, were confident that good health and safety practices were in place at community facilities to manage COVID-19 risks, and had confidence and trust in Local Government to make good decisions.
Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett said a key section of the survey also asked participants to highlight the main priorities local governments should target in the future.
“Our residents indicated that economic recovery and employment opportunities, community health and wellbeing, local infrastructure projects, community safety and crime prevention and providing support services for people most vulnerable to COVID-19 were five of the most important focus areas for the City,” Mayor Howlett said.
“At Cockburn we took substantial steps to address these areas, establishing a range of supports and services specifically to care for our community at this time.
“This included ensuring a zero percentage average rate increase, freezing fees and charges at 2019/20 levels, eliminating penalty interest on these rates, fees and charges, development of a Sporting Clubs COVID Support Package, rent relief options for City tenants plus a raft of ongoing supports for local businesses.
“The City also launched a Vulnerable Communities Plan which generated letters to 40,000+ households plus 46,000 emails, and had contact with more than 1,100 people via the COVID-19 telephone helpline in the first nine days of its establishment on 9 April.”
It follows Cockburn’s positive results in the annual Catalyse 2020 Community Scorecard survey which found the City has a ‘Governance/Organisation’ Performance Index Score of 69, 13 points above the industry average and on par with similar councils.
The City’s ‘Liveability’ score of 77 is two points above the industry average and on par with similar councils while ‘Value for Money’ is 57 (12 points above WA average) and ‘Community Consultation’ is 59 (10 points above WA average).
The most improved areas include safety and security (CoSafe), and the highest scoring areas include Cockburn ARC, playgrounds/parks/reserves, library services and waste services.
Areas of greatest strength compared to other councils included youth services, city centre development, economic development, disability access and as a governing organisation.
Areas rated ‘important’ by residents included:
· Traffic/Management Roads –
The City has allocated $27M to roads, footpaths and cycleways this year
· Safety and Security –
The City relaunched CoSafe following a two-year review to ensure delivery of a highly-qualified, responsive safety and security patrol service to meet community expectations
· Local Area Development –
$6M allocated for parks and the environment this year
· Streetscapes –
$800k+ has been allocated to streetscape improvements and tree planting this year.
In February-March, Scorecard invitations were sent to 4,000 randomly selected households and 457 residents and ratepayers completed the survey, plus another 240 participated as a result of survey promotions.
Read the COVID-19 Community Resilience Scorecard
here and the City of Cockburn 2020 Community Scorecard
here.