Council pleased with progress on complaints

SURF Coast Shire councillors are optimistic about the council’s changes in handling complaints and requests for services.

In October last year, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass surveyed 79 Victorian councils and was critical of the way many councils appeared to be incorrectly labelling “complaints” as “requests for service”.

The Surf Coast Shire Council reported 74 complaints and 13,739 requests for service in 2018.

The bi-annual complaint handling report, covering July-December 2019, revealed similar figures with 111 complaints and 13,867 requests for service.

At last week’s council meeting, shire mayor Rose Hodge said in line with the ombudsman’s recommendations, council will be widening their definition of what constitutes a complaint.

“The next time this bi-annual report comes to council; we’re going to see an increase in the number of complaints because we’re applying the definition more broadly

“Items such as a missed bin, an infringement appeal, a property valuation objection or an overflowing street litter bin will now be captured in our complaint reporting. Previously this wasn’t the case even though we collected the data and the requests were addressed.”

Cr Heather Wellington said she believed the distinctions were not presently clear.

“I don’t actually know how we decide if it’s a complaint or if it’s a request for service. It’s something councillors ought to know.”

However, she did express positivity over the changes the council had made since the ombudsman’s report, as did Cr Brian McKiterick, Cr Margot Smith and Cr Tony Revell.

More than a quarter of the 111 complaints were about the council’s plans to stop delivering fitness classes.

Cr Revell also emphasised that complaints could be a very helpful tool.

“They are actually a very valuable and important things to receive. They are triggers for us to analyse, to review and improve.”

About 29 per cent of the complaints the council received in the bi-annual report were about council’s decision to transfer the delivery of fitness classes.

Another 14 per cent were about waste collection.

The report also noted the council’s Lodge a Request service, which is accessible through their website, has been used with increasing frequency since it was introduced late last year.

One aspect council officers reported could be improved further was communication for “people with different communication needs like Auslan etc”.