Between 1 October and 30 November 2025, we asked the community to provide feedback about they experience and interact with Council communications, and to identify opportunities for improvement.

Feedback was gathered through an online survey (1,177 responses), and hard copy survey printed in the October/ November Let’s Talk Bayside magazine (477 responses).

Participant profile

• 84% ratepayers
• 71% 60+ year olds
• 60% were informed about the community engagement through an email from Council
• 65% females
• 26% were informed about the community engagement through This Week in Bayside e-newsletter
• 7% speak a language other than English
• 3% business operators

Key feedback themes for sources of information

• 93% of respondents source local news through Council’s communication channels
• Use of social media was more common amongst female and younger respondents
• Sourcing news through traditional news channels (newspapers, TV and radio) is more common amongst male and older respondents
• The most common sources for Council news, activities and events amongst survey respondents were:
  • This Week in Bayside email newsletter (64%, up from 41% in 2022)
  • Let’s Talk Bayside magazine - hard copy (55%) and/or online (38%).
  • Council website (36%)

• 19% of Let’s Talk Bayside hard copy survey respondents said they don’t have any other sources for Council news with the other main sources being local signage (35%) and This Week in Bayside e-newsletter (28%)

Key feedback themes for Council activities and topics

Most respondents indicated a broad interest in Council activities, covering their household/street (47%), local neighbourhood (72%) and/or the whole of Bayside (66%).

The topics of greatest interest included:

Key feedback themes for communication preferences

Participants were asked to indicate their top 3 preferred methods for receiving Council information:

• This Week in Bayside e-news (70% listed in their top 3 preferences)
• Let’s Talk Bayside, digital (41% listed in their top 3 preferences)
• Let’s Talk Bayside, print (38% listed in their top 3 preferences)
• Council’s website (36% listed in their top 3 preferences)
• Email (82% listed in their top 3 preferences)
• Letter/flyer in the mail (60% listed in their top 3 preferences)
• SMS/text (59% listed in their top 3 preferences)

Participants were asked to indicate their top 3 preferred communication channels:

Key feedback themes for This Week in Bayside

• 55% of survey participants said they click on and read only the articles of interest to them
• 15% said they read all articles in detail (increasing to 23% amongst 70+ year olds)
• 9% skim without reading full articles (increasing to over 20% amongst under 35 years)

Device types for viewing the digital newsletter included:

• 42% mostly use desktop or laptop (particularly males, 56%)
• 36% mobile phone (particularly females, 41%)
• 20% tablet or iPad (particularly 60+ year olds, 22%)

Key feedback themes for Let’s Talk Bayside

• 71% consider the frequency of delivery (every two months) to be about right, although 18% would like to receive it more often
• 60% of respondents said they receive every printed edition of LTB, with 17% indicating they sometimes receive it
• 50% read the articles of interest to them, more common amongst males (55%)
• 35% read it cover to cover (more common amongst older respondents, 41%)
• 8% skim headlines and images, increasing to 17% amongst 35–49-year-olds

More information

Read the full community engagement summary report.

Next steps

We’re reviewing community and stakeholder feedback to help inform our knowledge about the effectiveness of Council’s current range of communications channels to keep the community informed. Feedback will help to inform the updated External Communications Strategy.