Local government reporting urges Council to continue to do better

The 2024/25 Local Government Performance Reporting data was published this week and while Council is disappointed with some of the results, it recognises that it has the people, resources and systems in place to improve. 

Council’s audited data was published in its 2024/25 Annual Report, which was adopted by Council at the September Council meeting. The ‘Know Your Council’ dashboard that was released this week allows the community to compare council service areas such as libraries, roads and waste collection. The tool compiles data collected from Victorian councils and shows whether a council has met its own targets and how this compares to other councils across the state. It can be accessed via the Local Government Victoria website.  

CEO, Bradley Thomas, said that our results show that we are performing well in our maintenance of sealed local roads and our landfill diversion rate and show a reduction in expenses per head of municipal population. However, the results also reflect some challenges that Council, and the broader local government sector, are facing, particularly in the areas of planning and workforce turnover. 

“Our community deserves high quality, transparent and reliable service delivery, and while in most circumstances we deliver that, we believe we can and will continue to get better, and we are making the necessary changes to achieve that,” said Mr Thomas. 

“It’s important for us to look closely at the data, but we also have to keep the bigger picture in mind,” he said.  

“While we know our planning application timeframes aren’t where we’d like them to be, our Planning team has been working hard on major projects like the Dan Murphy’s appeal, the campaign against the Western Renewables Link, and shaping the Future Hepburn township structure plans. We appreciate the community’s understanding as we balance these significant initiatives.” 

Council has already implemented a range of initiatives to address some of the issues identified, including: 

• Recruitment of planners and streamlining planning processes. 
•  Continued investment in staff development and engagement to build a stronger, more stable workforce.
• Improved technology and systems.
• Enhancement of transparency and accountability through regular reporting. 

The Council Plan 2025–2029 (the Plan) is our key strategic document which sets out how we will work towards achieving the Community Vision 2031 over the next four years.  

“The Council Plan 2025–2029 has set the tone for the next four years, a chapter that will be defined by a strong commitment to our community, improving our customer responsiveness and ensuring our financial sustainability,” said Mr Thomas.  

Well performing service areas: 

• 98.4 per cent of sealed local roads maintained to condition standards (above state and small council average). 
• On average, Council took one day to respond to complaints about the safety or handling of food for sale (compared to the 2.3-day average of similar-sized councils).
• 52 per cent of waste diverted from landfill, an increase from 37.7 per cent in 2023/24 (above state and small council average).
• 3.8 visits to the library per population (slightly above average). 

Service areas for improvement:

• Missed bins (11.6 per 10,000 households, above the state average). 
• 22.4 per cent workforce turnover (above the state average but has reduced over the last three years).
• 102 days taken to decide planning applications, above the state average of 72.5 days (however an improvement from the previous year of 180 days).
• 26.5 per cent of planning applications were decided within required timeframes (below average, although improved from 17.9 per cent last year).