Brimbank council was the seventh most complained about municipality during the past financial year, the Victorian Ombudsman’s annual report has revealed.
The Ombudsman heard 107 complaints about the council, behind state leader Melbourne City Council with 149.
The most common complaints were unreasonable enforcement of parking regulations, providing an inadequate remedy to address a complaint and a delay in a complaint handling.
“It is important to note that not all complaints were substantiated,” it found.
The council’s director corporate and community relations Helen Morrissey said each year the council received more than 11,000 calls to customer service and logged thousands of requests for information.
“Brimbank has a population of 195,000 residents, we are a big community and provide a huge array of services … if we receive a complaint we take it seriously,” she said. “We have also instituted a monthly call-back program so that we can get feedback from people who have lodged a complaint or request for service.
“If community members are not satisfied with council services they have the opportunity to seek to resolve the matter with council or go directly to the Ombudsman for resolution.
“When a complaint is made to the Ombudsman it does not necessarily mean council has operated outside its service standards, and in some instances complaints have been made about issues that council has no direct knowledge or control over.”
