According to the annual Know Your Council data, 90.31 per cent of roads in the shire are maintained to condition standards, compared to 96.91 per cent in similar councils.

Northern Grampians was deemed a small shire and compared with Ararat, Buloke, Central Goldfields and Hindmarsh, among others, to inform the results.

Northern Grampians Shire Council chief executive Liana Thompson said the safety and upkeep of roads is a major priority.

READ MORE:

"Council has committed a little over $6.4 million to roads, bridges and drainage in the 2020/21 budget," Ms Thompson said.

In 2019/20, it took council two weeks longer than similar councils to decide the outcome of planning applications.

On average, council took 66 days to decide on applications, 14 days longer than similar councils, but on par with the state average.

Ms Thompson said council has been working hard to improve its planning application processes.

"We are creating a digital process that will effectively allow applicants to self serve and resolve issues before their application is submitted to council," she said.

"This will mean planning applications will require less time in-house and significantly decrease the time it takes to process them."

Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane welcomed the data, which he said showed councils have stepped up to support their communities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Know Your Council is all about building accountability and improving the information Victorians have available to assess the performance of their council," Mr Leane said.

During 2019/20, the percentage of decisions made by council at meetings closed to the public increased to 26.92 per cent, about triple the state average of 9.84 per cent.

Council said the nature of council business, driven by legislative and legal requirements, dictates the need to maintain the confidentiality of affected parties.

Ms Thompson said council will be going through all of the Know Your Council data and seeking to improve.

"We'll be going over this data with a fine-tooth comb and really taking on board feedback to continue to provide excellent service to the people of the Northern Grampians Shire," she said.

About 13 per cent of Northern Grampians residents are active library borrowers, while 42.36 per cent of the library resources in the shire are less than five years old, the data showed.

This figure is more than 20 per cent below the state average and 14 per cent below that of similar councils.

Council said since it began directly managing library operations from July 2020, its aimed to review the level of collection usage and book stock turnover.

The full Know Your Council dataset can be accessed by visiting knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the region, sign up here.