Yarra Council has received strong results in the State Government’s annual report on the performance of Victorian councils.

The Local Government Performance Reporting Framework (LGPRF) aims to improve transparency and accountability of councils. It assesses councils’ performance across a range of services and functions.

In 2016/17 Yarra excelled in a number of areas, including:

Governance

The community expressed a high level of support for Council’s consultation, engagement and decision making.

Satisfaction with Council’s community engagement practices scored well at 68, compared with 58 for similar councils and 55 for all councils.

Satisfaction with Council decisions also scored strongly at 67, compared to 59 and 54 for similar councils and all councils respectively.

The number of decisions made by Yarra Council at meetings closed to the public was slightly higher than similar and all other councils. However, it is important to note that Yarra does not have a separate committee to consider contract and legal issues confidentially, as many other councils do. In addition, we have reduced the number of decisions made in confidential meetings from the 2 previous years.

Roads

Community satisfaction with local roads was excellent, scoring 72 (out of 100), compared to 66 for similar councils and 54 for all councils.

In addition 98.75% of sealed local roads were maintained to the required standards.

The cost of resealing local roads in Yarra has reduced significantly, from $36 per square metre in 2015/16 to $30.87 in 2016/17, thanks to improved capital works planning.

Many of Yarra’s roads require bluestone, bicycle markings, green paint, pavement treatment around trees and traffic calming devices as part of the resealing works. These can add significant costs to road works, which explains why the cost per square metre is slightly higher for Yarra than other similar councils.

Aquatic facilities

Yarra’s 3 local swimming pools received excellent results in both safety and patronage.

The number of visits to local swimming pools at 11.96 per head of municipal population was very strong compared to 7.32 and 5.47 for similar and all councils respectively.
There were no reportable safety incidents at our aquatic facilities (compared to 2.26 and 1.38 for similar and all councils respectively).

Food safety

Yarra’s scores for food safety services, including inspection and monitoring of food serving businesses, were excellent across the board.

100% of the required food safety assessments were undertaken, and 100% of cases with serious non-compliance issues followed up appropriately.

Statutory Planning

Council planning decisions that were challenged at VCAT were upheld in 74.07% of cases, which is an outstanding result.

54% of planning permit applications were decided within the required time frames in 2016/17, a 10% improvement on the previous year.

Animal Management

Yarra is tracking well in all measured aspects of animal management, taking 2.46 days to action requests, compared with 2.55 days and 2.87 days for similar and all councils respectively.  The cost of delivering animal management services per registered animal is also lower in Yarra than similar and all councils, at $51.98 compared to $52.89 and $53.83 respectively.

To view the full results for Yarra and other councils, visit the Know Your Council website.

Background

Council delivers more than 185 services and programs that help people and communities.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the key services Council provides:

• Capital Works planning and project delivery including buildings, roads, footpaths and drains
• Street cleaning, waste management and minimisation
• Family, Youth and Children’s Services
• Leisure Services
• Arts, cultural and community events and venue hire
• Compliance and local laws
• Parking and traffic management
• Parks and Recreation
• Construction Management
• Aged and Disability Services
• Buildings, Property and Asset Management
• Strategic land use planning and policy, urban design and economic development
• Environmental sustainability advocacy and policy
• Strategic Transport advocacy, planning and infrastructure
• Library Services
• Statutory Planning