The City of Parramatta – home to Burramattagal people – is a dynamic and diverse middle suburban area of Western Sydney. Home to around 260,000 residents, the City’s relatively young population is forecast to grow considerably over the next twenty years, reaching more than 450,000 by 2041. Parramatta plays an important role in Metropolitan Sydney’s current and future social and economic progress. But what is it like to actually live in Parramatta? What do the residents value, and how do they experience their local area in that regard? How liveable is Parramatta, and most importantly, what does the community believe needs to happen to advance quality of life?
On the 2nd of March 2023 more than 70 local government professionals from 40 councils participated in the Living in Parramatta – key insights for policy makers webinar where we highlighted key findings from a recent Living in Place community survey, deployed for the City of Parramatta in late 2022. The five key insights were:
- The community has a clear set of values about what makes somewhere a good place to live and priorities regarding what needs to happen to advance quality of life.
- Improving residents’ ability to get around Parramatta will strengthen overall liveability.
- Residents born overseas have a slightly different set of values, including placing more stock in ‘social cohesion’, ‘high quality education opportunities’ and ‘opportunity for all’.
- While the provision of ‘affordable decent housing’ plays a critical role in making somewhere a good place to live, local area experiences of housing were mixed.
- The community is very concerned about household economic matters and feels more pessimistic than optimistic about their near term personal financial circumstances
Watch the conversation here and access all the insights, data and resources related to Living in Parramatta on the views.id reporting and exploratory platform. Webinar slides are available for download here.
If you’d like to learn more about how Living in Place can help bring your residents’ voices to Council’s most important decisions, this summary information sheet provides a simple overview, answers frequently asked questions and includes links to other helpful information. If you’d like to have a chat about Living in Place in your local context, feel free to book a meeting at a time that works for you here.
