Annual Report 2014

Service Delivery
The focus in the first 6 months of operation was on ensuring that the Noosa community not only
received a seamless service delivery transition on 1 January 2014 but also to ensure that quality
services were delivered. The key initiative undertaken was the re-introduction of the Noosa
Maintenance Manual. This manual set out the standards of service that the community can expect
and effectively restored the levels of service that the community had been accustomed to prior to
amalgamation.      More frequent street sweeping, better park maintenance, restoring the
streetscapes and better maintenance of high profile areas were all implemented in the first 6
months of Council operation.

Council also undertook some projects including:
   Kerbside collection – the Council undertook a kerbside collection program. The free kerbside
    collection program resulted in 1,501 tonnes of waste being collected from Noosa Shire
    households;
   Council website – an new website was published to provide the community with access to a
    wide range of Council information;
   Capital Works Program – Council had a limited Capital Works Program in its first 6 months. It
    inherited relatively few capital works projects that were ready to be delivered but Council spent
    a considerable amount of time developing a comprehensive Capital Works Program for the
    2014/15 financial year; and
   Noosa Planning Scheme review – the Council initiated a minor review of the Noosa Planning
    Scheme to update the scheme prior to a full scheme review which will be undertaken in
    approximately 2 years’ time.


Planning
While most of the focus of the Council in the first 6 months of operations has been on service
delivery and establishment of the new organisation, Council also found time to begin planning
ahead, looking at long term strategies that will help shape the future of Noosa. Some of these
included:
   A review of the management arrangements for the Noosa Biosphere Reserve;
   Commencement of a major review of our Waste Management Strategy;
   Adoption of the Noosa Council Corporate Plan 2014 to 2019; and
   Development of a disaster management planning framework and undertaking a number of
    training exercises to ensure that Council is ready for any future natural disasters.


Community Engagement
One of the reasons why so many Noosa residents supported the re-establishment of the Noosa
Shire Council was the opportunity to engage with their local Council. Many residents took this to
heart and gave the Council a call to welcome us back, which resulted in an overload on our phone
system. We received an almost 300% increase in calls in those first few months as our community
rang to touch base on issues they wanted to talk about.

We also saw quite a lot of residents come along to Council meetings to observe open democratic
process. We held out first community based Council meeting in Pomona in May 2014. This was
an opportunity for Pomona residents to come and meet Councillors and senior staff and to have a
conversation about issues that were important to them. We will hold more of these community
based Council meetings in the future.



Noosa Council Report 2014                                                                Page 3 of 24