CASE STUDY

Community Views in Banyule

Gaining a better understand of residents’ values, experiences and future needs.
Community views
Community Views in Banyule

Key Highlights

The Client

Banyule City Council

Need

Banyule City Council needed to better understand how residents’ values, experiences and future needs played out spatially across the LGA’s 7 x Precincts. Once captured, this information can be used to ensure policy and advocacy initiatives are being shaped and delivered in response to each specific community’s priorities

Approach

Banyule engaged .id’s Community Views service to survey more than 1,300 residents across April and May 2023. The survey explored a diverse range of topics including community values, experiences and future needs, health, financial wellbeing, local area concerns and ideas around what needs to happen to advance quality of life. The data was published on the views.id reporting and exploratory platform, and is accompanied by reports, workshops and insights video. In 2025, the community will be re-surveyed to monitor progress and check-in on emerging needs.

Key Insights

We learned that while Banyule is very liveable on the whole, perceptions regarding quality of life differ considerably across the LGA. A focus on improving community safety, residents’ ability to get around and diversifying the range of shopping, leisure and dining experiences will see local area liveability advance over the longer-term.

Applications

Banyule City Council used the 2023 Living in Banyule insights and data to inform its Banyule City Futures community engagement Project. Together, Living in Banyule and Banyule Futures form the foundation through which Banyule will refresh its Council Plan, Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan and other strategic documents.

In 2023, our consultants conducted the Community Views survey in Banyule City Council to support Council planning, policy and advocacy work. Here’s what we found.

While Banyule is very liveable, there are still opportunities to advance quality of life in the local area. In the 2023 Living in Banyule survey, residents nominated 'feeling safe' (71% selected this among their top five items) and 'access to the natural environment' (66%) as the two attributes that contribute most towards making somewhere a good place to live. The community also reported positive local area experiences for both items.

Where Banyule residents make their home has an influence on how they perceive local area liveability

Overall Liveability ranged from 68.3 out of 100 in the South (Ivanhoe East, Ivanhoe, and Eaglemont) and Mid Precincts (Rosanna, Heidelberg, and Macleod) through to 60.9 in the North West (Bundoora, Watsonia and Watsonia North) and 59.1 in the West (Heidelberg West, Heidelberg Heights and Bellfield) Precincts, respectively. Understanding the values, experiences, and future needs of these communities can lead to actions and advocacy that serve specific local issues, solving local problems. When administered consistently over several years, this approach should deliver better local area experiences which will, by extension, return a collective benefit to the Banyule's liveability in the macro.

Safety perceptions are critical to informing Banyule's overall liveability

Seven out-of-every ten Banyule residents surveyed (71%) selected 'feeling safe' among their top five liveability attributes, making it the item that the community believes contributes most towards making somewhere a good place to live. Residents largely felt safe where they live, rating their local area an average of 7.1 out of 10; the third most positively experienced attribute of 16. This combination of very high importance coupled with positive local area experiences determines that 'feeling safe' makes the single largest contribution to Banyule's current high levels of Overall Liveability. In saying this, residents of the West Precinct (Heidelberg West, Heidelberg Heights, and Bellfield) scored their local area an average 5.3 out of 10 for feeling safe, well below the Banyule and Greater Melbourne averages.

Improving residents' ability to get around the Banyule will strengthen overall liveability

Two out of the three items nominated as attributes to improve to advance quality of life were transport related – ‘a lack of road congestion’ and ‘the ability to make your way to and from essential services with ease’. This combination of high importance, coupled with poor local experiences suggests that there is a genuine and credible demand to make targeted transport related investments across the Municipality that not only put downward pressure on local area congestion, but help to facilitate better connections across essential services, such as employment, education, and healthcare.

There is demand for ‘a diverse range of shopping, leisure and dining experiences’ across Banyule

Forty-five percent of residents selected ‘a diverse range of shopping, leisure and dining experiences’ as an important attribute when considering what makes somewhere a good place to live, making it the 4th most important liveability aspect for residents overall. Despite this high level of importance, local area experiences for 'a diverse range of shopping, leisure and dining experiences' were relatively poor, with residents rating their local area an average of 6.3 out of 10 (the 11th most positively experienced attribute of 16). Improving local area experiences for this attribute will not only place upward pressure on the Overall Liveability Index, but also help to improve local area economic conditions.

Want to learn more?

The results of Banyule’s latest survey can be accessed on their views.id site. Banyule City Council has made the survey data and related insights publicly accessible through the views.id platform. This transparency ensures residents are aware of the data and its use in shaping Council's strategies and actions. By involving the community and keeping them informed, Banyule fosters a collaborative and trusting relationship between Council and its residents.

Community Views is an independent, robust and repeatable community survey that helps local councils and other organisations to credibly, comprehensively and efficiently represent their community’s views and needs in policy and advocacy. Book an introduction here.

Learn more 

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