Xyst was brought on board after a thorough risk and performance evaluation of the Mackenzie District Council’s parks and community facilities operations. Xyst was then asked to fill a sudden staff management gap, which quickly evolved into a long-term commitment to manage the District’s public facilities, parks, and community spaces.

Throughout this period, Xyst’s team has provided crucial support to the Council. This has included service reviews, the creation of an asset register, the development of an Asset Management Plan (AMP), the crafting of a Reserve Management Plan (RMP), alongside contributions to the Council’s Long-Term Plan (LTP) and Annual Plan (AP). Additionally, Xyst has formulated various strategies, policies, and bylaws to guide future projects and operations.

In addition to operational tasks, Xyst has project managed a programme of outstanding capital projects and spearheaded initiatives aimed at enhancing the District’s amenities. Xyst has also conducted tree assessments, handled GIS work, and successfully secured funding through the Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF) and Better Off Fund. Furthermore, Xyst has also implemented quality auditing measures for the Council’s contractors, ensuring performance standards are met and improved upon.

Xyst measured visitor expectations of levels of service by asking them to rate the importance of various park features. These results were compared with visitor satisfaction for the same features. Measuring satisfaction gave an indication of performance as measured against expectations. The difference, or gap between importance and satisfaction, gave a measure of under or over performance in delivering the expected level of service.
Xyst provided a summary report of the survey outcome from the surveys of December 2021 and were invited to undertake the survey again in December 2022.

Xyst provided the expertise of a mature and experienced manager to cover the role for a period of 9 months. The role was both operational and managing the in-house service delivery staff covering cemeteries, parks, trails, trees, public toilets, playgrounds and minor capital projects.

Xyst deployed an experienced and knowledgeable Parks and Facilities Manager to cover a vacancy for the Mackenzie District Council.

Xyst seamlessly assumed the vacant position and relocated staff to the District. The role entailed promptly tackling the operational challenges of the District’s seasonal pools, overseeing the District’s township contractor, actively participating in Community Board and Council meetings, and initiating the planning process for several long-overdue strategies. This project further evolved to provide a complete parks and facilities management service.

The Council resolved to provide a central service hub for campers visiting Nelson. Xyst identified potential sites and negotiated a lease for a disused petrol station in downtown Nelson. We quickly arranged all the necessary facilities to provide toilets, hot showers, wifi and visitor information. This included engaging contractors to staff and clean the facility.

Xyst undertook a comprehensive procurement process for the development of a new maintenance contract covering the entire district.

This included specification writing, GIS asset and contract mapping, contract writing, procurement plan, ROI and RFP preparation and evaluation.

Xyst also assisted with contractor handover and contract management in the first year of the contract.

The plan documented the management and capacity of each cemetery in the district, set levels of service for each cemetery and forecasted demand and capacity. Cemetery fees and charges were benchmarked across New Zealand using Yardstick

The Open Space and Street Furniture Guidelines is a suite of three resources:
Practice Notes (this document) – 4 practice notes (people, place,
environment, economy) describe context, principles, considerations
and further reading relevant to open space and street furniture
projects. These act as a general overview in support of the specific
design guidelines. Case studies are provided to illustrate their
application.
Quick Reference Guides – listing the required legislation, policy and
standards relevant to open space and street furniture project, for easy
reference.
Design Guidelines – the full list of guidelines for consideration,
presented in a decision making tool, which allows you to sort the
guidelines easily and find the relevant one for your project based on
complexity and context.

City of Melbourne engaged Xyst to undertake a market and service delivery assessment and make recommendations on the best model for packaging the Open Space Management and Tree Management service contracts.

The Xyst team gathered market intelligence on the current and potential service providers and considered the market in which they operate. We identified any major developments, industry practice or technology changes in the industry that could require new specifications or have a material bearing and can be leveraged to deliver the service.

We looked at any changes to the marketplace such as changes to suppliers, substitutes, delivery models, service efficiencies, sustainability, the supply chain or services delivered. And we considered skilled resource attraction and retention. Identified and described the innovation opportunities open to the contractors and Council.

Xyst also compared how other Victorian local governments, other capital cities and international cities deliver this type of service, including details of contractual arrangements.

The City of Whittlesea maintains 2,173 sites within its municipal boundaries where individual assets are located to be audited. All assets are inspected across the full range of park categories and measured for compliance with the relevant KPIs and outcomes detailed in the parks services contract, acting impartially and without bias.

In any given month a maximum of 100 randomly selected functional locations are allocated for quality audits. Xyst’s audit team also ensures all Council assets are audited over a 12-month period.

There are approximately 70 natural turf sportsgrounds at 58 functional locations, which are made up of varying sportsground types (soccer, cricket, AFL, softball, etc).

Schedule and Customer Request Audits will be randomly selected from any of the functional locations, resulting in over 1,000 quality audits per month.

A Water Conservation Plan specifically related to Napier City Council’s key sports grounds, amenity gardens and water features. This was among one of the first industry initiatives in the country with a real focus on water conservation.

The purpose of this Water Conservation Plan was to understand and improve the wide use of water across Napier’s parks, reserves and sports grounds by reducing water wastage and adopting good practice and behaviours.

The plan identified where each site’s water comes from, quantity being consumed, current work underway and recommendations to reduce water.

With global climate change concern, increasing water pressures and growing public expectations it is important we find a balance to conserve water whilst maintaining environment health and public expectations. The biggest pressure on the water network is poor water use specifically during low flow periods and peak demands.

Xyst prepared a resource consent application for Gisborne District Council, including AEE for the events cross referenced against the requirements of Te Papa Tipu Taunaki o Te Tairāwhiti – The Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan. This required consultation with various staff involved in the management of events to determine the scale and nature of what would be likely to occur in those spaces over the next 10 years. The resource consent was granted by Gisborne District Council.