Xyst provided an independent review of staffing resourcing to help the Parks and Open spaces department to determine appropriate resources and a structure for the Botanic Gardens in the future. There was only enough staff to perform basic maintenance of the gardens so Xyst carried out a benchmarking analysis to assess how other Botanic Gardens from around Australia and New Zealand resource their Botanic Gardens. This analysis suggested staffing structures and provided a recommendation about sufficient staffing numbers to service and maintain the gardens presently and in the future. This was broken into three stages of needs: short term, medium term and long term.

Xyst analysed the current education program that Geelong Botanic Gardens was using and created an issues and opportunities report. The report identified a number of issues and opportunities, fundamentally identifying a lack of strategic direction for the program. It was recognised that a business plan was needed to address many of the key issues. The business plan developed a future direction for the education program which provides guidance on the vision, scope, goals, process and procedures, fees and charges, and key performance indicators for the gardens.

Xyst was brought in to undertake a service review of the Parks and Environment section based on a Council resolution of November 2018.

We reviewed Kalamunda’s information with other Australian councils’ park provision, using Yardstick to produce a wide range of performance metrics to assess relative levels of service, performance and efficiency.

We were also involved in assessing the performance assessment of the quality of maintenance and operation standards on a range of parks across the city, a review of existing documents and meetings with staff and staff groups related to the parks and environment team.

At the end of this process we identified some key points which helped create key recommendations for the City of Kalamunda’s Parks and Environment section.

Xyst identified and developed Levels of Service through a series of staff workshops, assisted by an analysis of the current asset inventory and review of the contract specifications. The levels of service will address both development and operating levels of service and will be guided by an agreed strategic parks category framework that could be used for a range of management structures, tools and systems.

Xyst developed the Management plan to help RCMB identify opportunities for rejuvenation along the Murray River Corridor, encompassing future potential for residential land uses and sustainable environmental management. Xyst participated in inception and research and consultation and assessments to deliver a final management plan. From this Xyst identified opportunities and constraints relating to a broad range of environmental and economic considerations. These considerations were then used to develop a guiding set of principles which were established to guide the recommendations of the management plan.

Xyst prepared and led a 3/4 day training session on contract management, contributing to cover contract management tasks including tender planning, specification writing, etc. Three main themes were delivered to staff; these were contract management, service delivery specifications and quality management.

Xyst produced an operating level of service that was aligned with best practice guidelines which focused on confirming maintenance tasks associated with the trail network and identifying appropriate intervention tolerances, frequencies of operation, response times and deadlines associated with each task. Each level of service that was identified responded to the public use of the trails so that Council can allocate adequate resources to each trail depending on level of use. During the development of this level of service Xyst worked with the relevant Nillumbik staff to provide sufficient information on each operating task associated with each level of service. This involved a workshop where staff and Xyst worked through each task and identified whether the suggested level of service would work for Council taking into account their processes and resources

Xyst was engaged to undertake an independent mid-term audit and performance review of community caretaker contracts in place for parks and open space maintenance in rural townships across the Tairāwhiti Gisborne District.

The project included developing and undertaking an audit/performance assessment of each of the nine contractor areas, interviews with the contractors who held open space maintenance contracts to gain insight into any challenges/issues they are currently experiencing, their understanding of their obligations, their enthusiasm for continuing to provide services for the remainder of the contract period and preparation of a report that included:

• summary of audit results by contactor and area
• summary of common issues and across all contract areas
• summary of contractor consultation
• recommendations as a result of audit findings and contractor consultation.

Xyst undertook a performance quality assessment of operations and maintenance standards across a sample of different parks categories with a geographic spread across the shire. This assessment enabled us to develop an overall result of 90% for parks within the Council’s authority. Following the assessment, key areas of improvement and success were identified. From this information, Xyst provided key recommendations for the Council’s Parks and Gardens Section.

Xyst produced an operating levels of service guideline which focused on confirming scheduled maintenance tasks associated with grass, horticulture, sports areas, irrigation, furniture and structures, paths and hard surfaces, playgrounds, litter and refuse, trees, verges and firebreaks. Each of these areas had scheduled operations, such as grass height, and then each area had tasks assigned. From the scheduled operations we designed three levels of service standards which were labeled as high, moderate and low and specified tasks relating to each depending on the needed level.

Xyst worked closely with the Hutt City Parks and Reserves team to review their operations, property, planning, project management and contract management roles. Using a combination of peer Council analysis, Yardstick benchmarking and our extensive local government experience to identify opportunities for improvement and a programme of change.

To review the Council’s maintenance operations, Xyst developed a site inspection matrix that had two major areas of assessment, being critical success factors and the technical service levels. The critical success factors were scored for each site and weighting applied. This approach was used due to some factors for users being more important than technical issues. A physical review of 71 sites was then carried out, to assess all maintenance elements on each site to determine the standard and quality of maintenance being achieved. From this review areas of good and poor performance were discovered and were used to develop recommendations to Council