June 29th, 20262026: Still no satisfaction – Community Survey

“And he’s telling me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can’t get no, oh no, no, no
Hey, hey, hey, that’s what I say.”
– Lyrics from (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction…

Hepburn Shire Council’s overall performance dropped by five points, from 46 in 2025 to 41 in 2026, in the 2026 Victorian Community Satisfaction Survey. Meanwhile, the average of small rural councils was 60, just over that of Victoria-wide councils at 57.
Mayor Cr Tony Clark said the results would “only spur us on and do the best job we possibly can – it’s just going to take time”. That is despite the survey saying the overall score for Hepburn Shire was the lowest in 10 years.
Cr Clark said the results were underwhelming and the council knew the community was not satisfied “with our performance because that’s what they’ve been telling us over the last year or so”.
“With a small team and financial limitations, we have been working hard to focus our efforts on our lowest performing areas from 2025 and committed to continued transparency, maintaining sealed roads and refining processes in the Planning and Building department. And this year, we saw an increase in satisfaction with sealed local roads, waste management and customer service.”
The survey said contributing to the poor overall rate was declines across most measures including a significant decrease in perceptions of value for money.
“Community decisions has the strongest influence on perceptions of overall performance but remains one of council’s lowest performing service areas. The related areas of planning and building permits, community consultation and lobbying, as well as sealed roads and slashing and weed control, are other influential areas.
“Improving communication, transparency and advocacy and addressing concerns around planning and road maintenance will help to strengthen perceptions of overall council performance.”
The survey said the council performed significantly lower than the small rural group average and the overall average across participating councils in most areas.
“This will require a concerted effort from council to correct if it is to endeavour to be on a comparative level with the small rural group average.
“Council performs strongly on arts centres and libraries, and waste management ratings have significantly improved after a sharp decline last year. Council should maintain efforts in these areas in the year ahead. Public areas and recreational facilities are other strong performing areas however further minor declines this year have eroded significant gains made in 2024.”

Hepburn 2026 | Hepburn 2025 | Small Rural | Overall

Overall performance – 41 46 60 57
Value for money – 35 39 52 49
Overall council direction – 34 38 52 48
Appearance of public areas – 60 63 73 71
Tourism development – 60 63 65 64
Recreational facilities – 57 60 69 71
Environmental sustainability – 54 56 60 60
Enforcement of local laws – 52 55 60 60
Business & community dev. – 49 53 59 56
Consultation & engagement – 44 47 57 53
Slashing & weed control – 42 44 47 45
Lobbying – 41 45 57 54
Community decisions – 36 42 56 52
Customer service – 69 64 70 69
Waste management – 63 58 71 69
Sealed local roads – 35 33 48 46
Planning & building permits – 33 33 47 46
Libraries – 70 none 77 76

Words: Donna Kelly