Cr Danita Potter
July 19, 2017
Complaints about animals such as barking dogs or wandering cows are the top gripe the South Burnett Regional Council receives.
They’re followed by complaints about roads, water supply issues, waste collection and mowing.
Cr Danita Potter told Wednesday’s Council meeting the information comes from the Council’s latest customer contact statistics, which cover the period from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.
In the past year the Council’s customer contact staff received 27,826 calls, an average 107 calls every working day.
14,786 of those were customer requests to fix problems or carry out services.
Last year the Council received 1449 complaints about animals, which was slightly up on the 1163 complaints it received in 2015-16 (though the Council noted last year that figure was 284 down on the year before).
The next most common complaint was about roads, with 1353 complaints received (1323 in 2015-16).
Water supply complaints saw a big jump to 1118 (versus 786 in 2015-16) while problems with waste collection rankled another 555 people (460 in 2015-16).
But a blisteringly hot, lawn killing summer may have led to a slight fall in the 521 complaints front desk staff received about mowing (539 in 2015-16).
When it comes to service requests, plumbing applications saw a big leap to 1681 last year, well up from just 206 in 2015-16.
Searches were the next most popular, rising slightly from 1382 in 2015-16 to 1406 in 2016-17.
Impounding also rose slightly from 685 to 715.
But Council officers issued a lot less fines for local law breaches, with numbers dropping by almost half to 587 (1108 in 2015-16).
On a brighter note, nearly all Council’s public halls saw more use last year.
Kingaroy’s Town Hall and Town Common Hall hosted a combined 530 bookings in 2016-17, well up on the 341 they received the year before.
Wondai Town Hall was next most popular, with 233 bookings – a slight increase on the 226 bookings it had in 2015-16.
This was followed by Nanango’s Cultural Centre, which took third place with 215, slightly down on the 238 it had twelve months prior, and Murgon Town Hall came in fourth, rising from 94 to 106 bookings.
Proston Town Hall took out fifth spot, rising from 89 to 90.
