Local businesses respond to Council’s impact survey

FORTY local businesses were surveyed earlier this year to provide the Upper Hunter Shire Council comparative feedback on the impacts of the drought, Covid-19 and the Scone Bypass.

The five-minute voluntary survey was open until March 14 and could be submitted anonymously.

Upper Hunter Shire Manager of Business Services, David Gatwood said 75 percent of survey respondents were Scone-based businesses and almost 50 percent reported a noticeable decrease in sales over the past twelve months.

“On of the question was around comparing sales from when we were in drought compared to 2020 and the impacts of Covid-19. Slightly under 50 percent of the respondents indicated they have seen a noticeable decrease in sales over last twelve months in comparison to what they’d experienced during the three year drought period,” Mr Gatwood said.

“There was a fairly significant percentage that felt the Scone bypass was not relevant. The question was how the opening of the bypass impacted sales over the last twelve months. We saw five percent of respondents who saw a material decrease,” he said.

“Interestingly, a question that asked to what extent is the drought still impacting your business, we got 40 percent that said either a little bit, somewhat or very much. We’ve still got 40 percent of respondents that feel the drought is still impacting their business to some degree, which was a surprising statistic,” he said.

“There was a generic question around rating the business climate and 52.5 percent or respondents indicated that it was between average to excellent, so they were held a positive mindset or were positive about the outlook,” said Mr Gatwood.

The Economic Development and Tourism Committee will use the survey results to develop an action plan at their next meeting in June, which will then be put before Council at either the June or July Council meeting.

“The company that we commissioned have provided a short list of recommendations and that will be discussed at length at the meeting,” Mr Gatwood said.

“Some obvious recommendations including putting together an economic development action plan, a potential E-newsletter that reaches all of the towns and villages and looking at means of attracting business,” he said.

“It will be put as a recommendation to Council . . . it will then come back to me in terms of how we respond or action this, incorporating it into our overarching economic development strategy,” he said.

“Some of this will be funded out of the Economic Development budget and we will also look for grant funding opportunities, as a lot are opening up that revolve around economic development,” said Mr Gatwood.

Related story: Impact survey on drought, Covid-19 and the Scone Bypass