City of Ballarat's overall performance was rated at 70.9 out of 100 overall, in the Community Perceptions Survey 2019 which was released on Friday. The overarching score was a drop from 72.0 in 2018.

There was high agreement that Ballarat is a good place place to raise a family (8.2 out of 10), is a good place to live (8.1 out of 10), but respondents had low agreement levels to statements about the city having good employment opportunities or good public transport (both 6.4 out of 100).

But council's customer service score jumped to 76 out of 100, a more than six point improvement on last year's score.

The data was drawn from 836 people in the Ballarat municipality who were surveyed in early 2019, with 84 per cent of those contacted by landline, the rest by mobile phone.

The report by the Local Government Research Group notes that current best practice should have 50 per cent of responses via landline, and 50 per cent by mobile phone.

Most loathed City of Ballarat services were parking (47.9 per cent approval, signalling dissatisfaction) and strategic planning (51.8 per cent). Maternal and child health services were given a 89 per cent approval rating.

"The primary issues that Ballarat people identified as needing to be addressed were infrastructure related, including public transport and parking," the report notes. "North Ward are ... significantly more likely to claim that they do not want to provide the Council with feedback. South Ward residents are more likely than others to email the Council or Councillor directly."

The Sebastopol Library redevelopment was the most popular project in the city, while the Ballarat West Employment Zone was given a 'low' satisfaction rating and was considered the least successful build in the city.

Around three in five people surveyed had been to White Night, while only 11 per cent of residents had seen a Western Bulldogs game at Mars Stadium. White Night received a 9.0 score out of 10 from those who attended.

Mayor Samantha McIntosh said in a media release said it was a "very positive result for our Council, particularly in regard to our customer service".

"Obviously there are areas that we need to work on, and we will use this feedback to continually improve on our performance," she said.

In the press release, it stated that "(City of Ballarat) acknowledged large projects such as the Civic Hall re-development, which rated highly for awareness but less for perceptions of success, was a huge undertaking that came under scrutiny from the Ballarat community."

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