Customer Service Guarantee

Our commitment to you

Our community has told us that they would like to see Council improve its customer responsiveness, and we’ve listened.

Council is in the process of adopting a range of innovations to improve customer service for the Yarra community. You won’t see all of them because many involve streamlining and improving our internal processes. But hopefully, you will experience the benefit of them when you use one of our services or call us.

As part of our commitment to improving customer service, we have developed a Customer Guarantee with 60 measurable targets. These targets have been chosen because they are frequently requested services or they are measures we believe will be important to you.

We will track our performance on the Guarantee and report back to you on how we have performed in meeting our commitments. For any targets where we have failed to meet our stated standard, we will develop improvement plans so that we meet our commitment.

If you would like to contact Council to discuss any aspect of the Guarantee or you would like to report an instance where you believe we are failing to meet our commitment, please contact Access Yarra on 9205 5555.

Customer responsiveness

1. We will answer 90% of calls to our Access Yarra customer service centre within 45 seconds.

2. We will respond to your letter within 10 working days of receipt.

3. We will respond to your email with an acknowledgement within 1 working day.

Waste Services

4.The weekly domestic waste collection service will not lead to more than 85 reports of uncollected bins per month (this target is well above industry standards).

5. The weekly recycling collection service will not lead to more than 40 reports of uncollected bins per month (this target is well above industry standards).

6. Damaged bins will be repaired on site at time of collection where possible. Reports of broken bins will be attended to within 2 working days of being reported.

7. Replacement bins will be provided within 1 day of being reported.

8. A hard rubbish collection will be provided within 10 days of being requested.

9. A green waste collection service will be provided within 10 days of being requested.

10. We will clean every major shopping strip daily and other residential streets, on average, once every 4 weeks.

11. All street litter bins in shopping strips will be emptied daily.

12. Council will work to reduce the amount of waste collected in Yarra being sent to landfill. Sixty-five percent of waste will be diverted from landfill by 2014.

13. Our Rapid Response team will investigate reports of litter and dumped waste for prosecution within four hours of it being reported.

Roads and footpaths

 14. Major potholes will be responded to and made safe within 24 hours and repaired within 7 days.

 15. 10,000 metres of footpaths will be upgraded every year.

16. Footpaths determined to be a tripping hazard will be made safe within 24 hours and programmed for repair.

17. Urgent maintenance requests will be attended to within 24 hours.

Library Services

18. 24,000 new items will be added to the Yarra Libraries collection per year. 

19. 3,500 new items will be added to the Yarra Libraries for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities collections per year. 

Parks and open space

20. We will visit all parks every two weeks, to ensure that the grass is maintained and to identify, remove or report any situations of risk or threat to public safety.

21. We will visit all sporting ovals every week, to ensure that the grass is maintained and to identify, remove or report any situations of risk or threat to public safety.

22. We will inspect all playgrounds, public toilets and barbeque facilities on a prioritised maintenance program to ensure the facilities are clean, safe and usable.

Trees

23. We will prune every street tree in shopping precincts, primary and arterial roads every year, and in local streets at least every two years, to ensure they meet safety requirements.

24. We will plant a minimum of 500 street trees per year.

Graffiti

25. Our Rapid Response team will respond to reports of offensive graffiti within 4 hours.

Animals

26. We will increase the number of registered pets by 5% per year.

27. Our Animal Management Officers will conduct a minimum of 64 hours of park patrols per month.

28. We will respond to animal nuisance calls, such as barking dogs or stray animals within 1 working day and appropriate enforcement action will be taken within 3 working days.

Parking

29. We will provide parking permits within 5 days of the receipt of a valid application.

Planning

30. We will commit to conducting broad community consultation on all major planning proposals presented to Council.

31. 80% of planning applications designated as ‘Simple’ will be determined within 60 days.

32. 100% of planning applications designated as ‘Fast Track’ will be determined within 21 days.

Transport

33. We will construct 5 major separated on-road bicycle routes and 5 major off-road bicycle routes by 2012.

Community care

34. We will respond within 1 working day to requests for assessment for assistance (home care, respite care, delivered meals).

35. We will provide a total 47,000 hours of direct care services per year to assist older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently at home.

36. We will provide a total of 65,000 meals through the delivered meals program and 3,700 hours of home maintenance to assist older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently at home.

Family & Children’s Services

37. We will respond within 1 working day to all enquiries from new and existing community members.

38. Occupancy rates at our child care centres will average 98% across the year.

39. We will meet all funding and regulatory requirements for Children’s Services, Maternal and Child Health, Family Support and Financial  Counselling.

Recreation

40. We will improve the standard of services and facilities provided at our leisure centres and sports grounds, as measured by improved attendances and customer feedback.

41. We will process new leisure centre memberships within 30 minutes of their receipt.

42. We will respond to and process current member enquiries relating to terms, conditions and payments within 3 working days.

43. We will deliver 99% of timetabled classes for group fitness, swim lessons, squads and multisport.

44. To ensure our water quality is of the highest standard for our swimmers, and in line with health department regulations, we will test and record the quality of the water in our pools a minimum of 52 times per day.

Health

45.All eateries in Yarra will be subject to an inspection by a health officer at least once every 12 months.

46. Council’s contracted syringe management service will regularly monitor drug hotspots and provide a rapid response to inappropriately discarded syringes in public places in Yarra.

Environmental Sustainability

47. We will reduce water consumption in Council operations by 40% (133ML) by 2015 (from 2000 levels).

48. Council will become Carbon Neutral (produce zero net emissions) by 2012, a reduction of approx 16,820 tonnes.

49. Council will use 30% less energy by 2012 (reduction of approx 2,800 MWh electricity from 2001 levels).

50. Council will generate 10% of its energy needs from renewable (and low carbon) local energy sources by 2012.

Community Amenity

51. Appropriate enforcement action will be taken within 3 working days on complaints regarding a Local Law (such as overhanging trees, footpath trading, littering, obstructions on footpaths and roadways).

52. We will respond to all noise complaints reported during business hours regarding licenced premises within 1 working day, and within 15 minutes if reported after hours. Appropriate enforcement action will be taken within 10 working days.

Accessibility

53. We will endeavour to optimise accessibility to all Council services and information.

54.We will redesign the Council website and ensure it is fully accessible, in accordance with guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium.

55. We will conduct training of staff to ensure our people are fully aware and equipped to respond to the needs of people with a disability.

 56. We will ensure that all staff are trained in the use of the interpreter and translator services and offer these options to residents pro-actively.

Communication

 57. We will upgrade Council’s website to ensure information is expanded and updates are made daily.

58. The Yarra newsletter will be surveyed to ensure it meets the needs of residents.

59. We will report to the community on how we have performed on the targets set out in this guarantee on an annual basis through the Yarra News and the Yarra website.

Consultation and Engagement

60. Council will implement its Community Consultation Policy to ensure it engages with the community on a broad range of Council policies, projects and activities. Training will be conducted to ensure staff are aware of the policy and know how to seek support to implement it.

 

 

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Further information

Access Yarra
Telephone 9205 5555
Email info@yarracity.vic.gov.au

Links

Within this site
Yarra City Council

External sites (Yarra City Council accepts no responsibility for the information or opinions contained within external sites)
Victoria Online

Information supplied by: Electronic communications & design officer - 9205 5214 - 20 January 2006

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