Council
2 September, 2026
Time to test community sentiment
Local residents are being asked to comment on Wingecarribee Shire Council’s performance over the past year as part of its Annual Community Sentiment Survey.
Local residents are being asked to comment on Wingecarribee Shire Council’s performance over the past year as part of its Annual Community Sentiment Survey.
The survey – which also measures trust, communication and service delivery – is an opt-in survey available on council’s community engagement platform, https://participatewingecarribee.wsc.nsw.gov.au/annual-community-sentiment-survey
The results from last year’s inaugural survey were brutal – although Mayor Jesse Fitzpatrick prefers to describe the feedback as ‘frank’.
More than half the survey’s 1374 respondents said they did not trust or only slightly trusted council and that they were disappointed with council’s overall performance
Just under half said they were disappointed with council’s communication.
More than 60 per cent of respondents identified roads as the area needing most attention.
The question is whether or not council has done enough – or anything at all – over the past 12 months to improve on last year’s survey results.
Council is already taking steps to ensure this year’s survey results are not influenced by anger over the proposed Special Rate Variation (SRV).
Last year it said the results were probably influenced, in part, by its decision not to join proceedings in the Land and Environment Court relating to the proposed Repoly (now Plasrefine) plastics recycling facility – pointing to the fact that the number of survey respondents from Moss Vale was proportionately higher than it was from other localities across the shire.
Council’s messaging for this year’s survey tries to make one thing clear: this isn’t about the SRV.
“The Annual is separate from council's recently completed Future Funding, Stronger Shire engagement,” Cr Fitzpatrick said.
“I know a lot of people have just taken the time to have their say on council's financial sustainability, and I'm grateful they did.
“That was a conversation about a specific decision facing council.
“The Annual is different,” Cr Fitzpatrick said.
“This is about council itself, how we're performing, what we're getting right and where people think we still need to focus.”
A council Facebook post encouraging people to take part in the survey contained similar wording – possibly ignoring the fact that council’s overall performance has been impacted by financial constraints and that the SRV gave rise to some serious concerns in the community relating to trust, communication and service delivery.
Cr Fitzpatrick said the results from last year’s survey had provided a “clear starting point”.
“Last year, people were pretty clear where they thought we needed to do better, particularly around trust, services, communication and council's overall performance,” Cr Fitzpatrick said. “That's exactly why we run The Annual. We don't just want to ask once. We want to come back each year and ask: how are we going now?” Cr Fitzpatrick said.
The survey will be open until September 30 and takes just a few minutes to complete.
No registration is required and responses are anonymous.
However, at the end of the survey if you indicate you want to follow the project you are asked to provide your email address.
The responses will be independently analysed and results will be published on both the Participate Wingecarribee and Wingecarribee Shire Council websites.
The results are expected in November.
According to the Participate Wingecarribee website, The Annual is part of council’s Delivery Program commitment to strengthen communication and engagement and to track how community sentiment changes over time.
It is separate from council’s biennial Community Satisfaction Survey which is independently conducted with a randomised and representative sample of residents to benchmark satisfaction with council’s services and facilities.
--------------
Subscribe to The Southern Wire Newsletter for free at the link below.
https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/1986abc6-c89e-4781-9db2-cf35c9dd71e4
If you value independent local journalism across the Highlands, Tablelands and Wollondilly, please click the link below to support us to ensure we remain paywall free.
Read More: Southern Highlands