The latest survey into residents’ satisfaction with Central Coast Council’s water and sewer services has found a decline in perceptions of value for money and in trust.
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART) results show that customer satisfaction has not varied substantially since it began surveying customers.
It was 5.8 in February 2024, dropped to 5.6 in the three following surveys, then down to 5.5 in March of this year and is now back up to 5.6 in the latest survey.
IPART assesses customers’ overall satisfaction and specifically their satisfaction with the value for money they receive, how much they trust Council and how they view Council’s reputation.
For each of these areas, customer satisfaction was highest when IPART first began surveying Council’s customers in 2020/21, and then it slightly decreased.
Over 2023/24, customer satisfaction began to increase to just below April-2021 levels.
However, customer satisfaction has since declined and remained steady since May 2024, except value for money which has been steadily declining since February 2024.
Value for money sat at 5.5 for four consecutive surveys up to February 2024 but has dropped by 0.1 in each of the five surveys since to now sit at 5.0.
Trust sat at 5.7 for four surveys to February 2024 and then fell for the next three surveys to be 5.3 in March of this year and has come up to 5.4 in the June survey.
Reputation sat at 5.3 in February 2024, fell to 5.1 for the next four surveys and is back at 5.3 in the June survey.
“We have compared Central Coast Council’s results with three Victorian utilities which are similar in function and customer base: Barwon Water, Goulburn Valley Water and Central Highlands Water,” IPART said.
“Central Coast Council has not performed as well as any of these utilities.”
IPART surveys Council’s customers four times a year to understand their satisfaction with the services they are provided.
In each round of the survey, it aims to survey about 100 customers, totalling about 400 customers each year.
IPART stopped surveying Hunter Water and Sydney Water customers, saying they were performing well and there was negligible variation in results from 2019 to 2023.
“We consider that the costs of continuing the survey, which are ultimately borne by the people of NSW, did not outweigh the benefits,” IPART said.
Both Sydney Water and Hunter Water must engage with customers to understand their needs and preferences in preparation for upcoming pricing reviews.
“As Central Coast Council does not have the same requirement to engage with its customers until it is preparing for its next pricing review in 2026, we have continued to survey its customers,” IPART said.
“We consider it important to continue to test customers’ perspectives on Central Coast Council given its past performance is below that of Sydney Water and Hunter Water.”
Merilyn Vale
