UPDATE Friday 7.30am: City of Greater Bendigo councillors have moved to assure Heathcote it will not be neglected by the council in the wake of the latest community satisfaction survey results.

Mayor and Eppalock ward councillor Margaret O’Rourke said last year’s election campaign told her Heathcote residents “hadn’t been as well-serviced as they could be”.

But she said the current crop of councillors was committed to the municipality’s rural communities.

Receiving an equitable share of resources, isolation because of geographical distance from Bendigo and a perception of being neglected are among the issues Cr O’Rourke and fellow Eppalock ward councillor Yvonne Wrigglesworth identified as issues for the township.

But councillors said there were already projects under way to reap benefits for Heathcote.

Among these was the township plan, which Cr O’Rourke said would ensure the council knew Heathcote’s priorities into the future and how it could help the community reach its goals.

Eppalock councillor George Flack said there had been a lot of action since the February-March survey.

Cr Flack said he and his fellow ward councillors had visited Heathcote numerous times and the town had been included in a tour that also took in Redesdale and Mia Mia.

Cr O’Rourke added she visited Heathcote every three weeks to talk to the community, on top of visits for specific events.

“It’s about having that accessibility,” she said.

Cr Wrigglesworth said she hoped the survey results were not reflective of the community’s views, saying that the reception the council had received in the municipality’s rural communities had been “overwhelmingly positive”.

EARLIER: The dissatisfaction of Heathcote residents with the City of Greater Bendigo suggested by the latest community survey is not necessarily a reflection of the current council, some locals believe.

Respondents from Heathcote gave the City of Greater Bendigo an overall performance score of 32, the lowest of all groups within the municipality and 21 points below last year’s score.

However, the sample size from Heathcote was only small, with fewer than 30 respondents.

Peter Maine, a local businessman and president of Advance Heathcote and Heathcote Tourism and Development, said he believed the low scores were likely a hangover from the previous term of council.

There was a feeling that Heathcote had been neglected, he said, and residents were disgruntled when they compared the condition of basic infrastructure, such as footpaths, in their town to what Bendigo had.

But Mr Maine said he was optimistic about the new council, which was sworn in seven months ago.

Heathcote is part of Eppalock ward, which is represented by mayor Margaret O’Rourke, Yvonne Wrigglesworth and George Flack.

“The ward councillors are very aware and very focused on rural and regional communities, and the need to bring them along in the process of the City of Greater Bendigo,” Mr Maine said.

“They absolutely, in my view, hit the ground running and we had engagement at a level we’d never experienced before.”

The new councillors also appeared to have reinvigorated the council as an organisation, Mr Maine said, and projects that had been long worked towards were seeing progress, including the Barrack Reserve redevelopment.

Heathcote Health chief executive officer Dan Douglass said he also felt that Heathcote, like other more isolated pars of the municipality, had not been paid due attention in the past.

But he too is positive about the new council and the organisation as a whole, saying a lot of work has been put into Heathcote recently, including the township plan.

Dr Douglass said proof of their commitment would lie in what changes unfolded, but he felt the town was being listened to and permitted its say.

But Leslie Ong, from Heathcote Real Estate, said there was a feeling Heathcote was overlooked.

He said there were resources in Heathcote that could be used for the benefit of the town but were instead neglected, such as bare flagpoles in the main street which he suggested could be used to beautify the town and promote local events.

Mr Ong wants more council support for the town’s tourism sector and the wider business community.

“We’ve got a lot to offer… (but) sometimes it feels like a dead-end town, because nothing is happening,” Mr Ong said.

There needed to be greater support of the town’s young people, he said, particularly in employment, to ensure it flourished into the future.

Mr Ong said not much was known about the new councillors and he would like to see them make themselves better known and more a part of the community.

The council as a municipal organisation also needed to become more user-friendly, he said, with less red tape in its processes and more co-operation with local businesses.