2015-06-23 Infrastructure & Services Committee Agenda

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                   23 JUNE 2015


Weeds
 Noxious

Cemeteries
 Enquiry
 Maintenance

The amount of time to investigate and resolve complaints with these areas can vary considerably
depending on the nature of the issue For example Feral Animal, Declared Plants and Noise
complaints can all take weeks to resolve and consume days of an officer’s time, whilst other
inquiries may be resolved with a phone call or by using standard toolbox response letters.

Process

When a complaint is received for odour, dust, light, noise, and smoke issues the responsible
officer:
 Calls the complainant to substantiate the complainant, including confirmation of the alleged
     offenders address;
 Requests the department administration officer to send a standard toolbox letter to the
     alleged offender advising that a complaint has been received, the nature of the complaint and
     a request that the matter be resolved;
 Another letter is sent to the complainant advising them of the action taken and requesting that
     if the matter is not resolved within 14 days they contact Council again; and
 The initial customer request is then closed.

Complaints about food premises or alleged food poisoning incidents are dealt with as follows:
 The responsible officer conducts an urgent inspection in consultation with the proprietor;
 If illness is involved the methodology of storing and preparing food is examined and if
   samples of food are available they may be taken for testing to link pathogens with alleged
   food poisoning incident. (Often there is no residual food available);
 The complainant is contacted for further information about what has been consumed, how
   many persons consumed similar food, period of onset of symptoms etc;
 Notices are served if the inspection reveals structural deficiencies, storage temperatures or
   food handling techniques requiring rectification of deficiencies;
 If the offence can be proved and deliberate neglect is involved the offender may receive an
   infringement notice;
 A report is compiled and placed on the food premise file with a copy sent to Qld Health if they
   originated the complaint; and
 The customer request is closed.


Complaints from Qld Health about breaches of the Health Act received by the Department are
dealt with
 An officer conducts an investigation into the alleged breach;
 Action is taken to rectify the breach if it exists, often in the form of a notice issued under the
   Health Act or Health Regulation;
 A report is prepared for Qld Health advising of the investigation conducted and the findings of
   the investigation and any action taken to rectify the offence; and
 The customer request is closed.



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