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Gunnedah Shire Council was investing in a comprehensive suite of online demographic information products. The tools will enable council to provide more accurate and comprehensive statistical information for strategic reports like the Disability Action Plan and Cultural Plan, at significantly lower cost.
The resource does not come cheap and will cost council $18,700 in yearly subscription fees. But the investment was less than half of what it would cost using traditional methods, which council’s director for planning and environmental services, Andrew Johns, described as “difficult and time consuming”.
A detailed report to council described how the software will empower community groups, individuals and not-for-profits seeking to lodge applications for grant funding and improve efficiency of information gathering processes.
“Government departments have an increasing expectation that grant applications contain relevant and current statistical information, to demonstrate need and with many groups comprised of volunteers, time and capacity to source the information is challenging and results in many missed opportunities,” the report said. “Council staff currently support requests for statistical information by community groups and students which is time consuming and not sustainable over the long term.”
The tools were also said to provide “one, consistent population and socio-economic figure for the Gunnedah local government area (LGA)”. The report noted a lack of consistency in statistical information gathering had a tendency to lead to “confusion and lack of confidence in decision making”.
It said the tools will allow council to “present information for each small area – suburbs,postcodes, wards etc – enabling council to accurately target resources to the relevant communities within their LGA”. Typically previous analysis was only provided at a whole of LGA level.
The new resources will also “avoid costly repetition” for developments, facilities plans and proposals which often required a $10,000 investment for statistical analysis.
“If only five studies are commissioned each year this represents an annual cost of $50,000,” the council report noted.
The tools will also avoid incorrect analysis of complex demographic forecasts.
“Council staff complete confidence that the information being used to make crucial decisions is accurate.”
The tools to be acquired by Gunnedah council will include profile.id – a demographic profile which presents data from the 1991 to 2016 (when available) census and describes changes over time. Also purchased will be atlas.id and economy.id.