While council received a positive review for resident consultation and libraries, it’s a mixed result for the classic municipal pillars of roads and rubbish, and transparency continues to be a concern. 

Results were released on the state government’s Know Your Council website this week, which collates performance data from municipalities across Victoria. 

Ballarat’s library system got the tick of approval, with the cost of each visit going down year on year, and items borrowed on average more than similar councils. 

But if you’ve ever wondered why your bin hasn’t been picked up, you’re probably not alone. Ballarat had 9.34 bins missed in collection out of 10,000, compared to only 5.54 in similar councils.  

Mayor Samantha McIntosh said in a statement the city is working to decrease the number of bins missed through “changes to routes” and staff solutions. 

When it comes to transparency, measured by decisions made behind closed doors, City of Ballarat is only getting worse. 

The number of resolutions made at meetings closed to the public has increased every year since 2014.

City of Ballarat made 16.38 per cent of decisions behind closed doors in 2017-18, or around one in six. Similar councils make only 11.17 per cent of decisions in secret. 

Transparency has been a major concern of Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass, with a damning 2016 inquiry stating some councils were simply being secretive for the sake of it.

“Secrecy breeds suspicion,” Ms Glass wrote. “Decisions made behind closed doors, not published on council websites or otherwise exposed to the public gaze, make people suspicious about whether the decision was fair or, where money is involved, whether it is a good use of public funds.”

READ MORE How transparent is City of Ballarat? String of decisions garner public anger

When it comes to roads, City of Ballarat’s community satisfaction was 59 out of 100, compared to the lower score of 54 out of 100 achieved by similar-sized councils. 

Ballarat’s satisfaction with community consultation and engagement hit 59 out of 100 in 2017-18, four points ahead of similar regional centres. 

In a statement, mayor Samantha McIntosh said while there was “room for improvement in some areas”, she wanted residents to be “confident” council was working on it.

“It’s encouraging to observe our community satisfaction with community engagement has improved from the previous year...” she stated. “The steady increase in [library] visits over the last financial year are also reflecting the increased diversity of services and programs offered at our libraries.” 

Ballarat’s planning department has received an unfavorable report for failing to make planning decisions in required time frames. 

The time taken to decide planning applications in Ballarat has increased by three days compared to last year according to Know Your Council, with the 59-day wait in 2017-18 surpassing similar councils by over six days. 

Only 71.99 per cent of planning decisions in Ballarat are completed in required time frames, compared to similar councils who get 80.07 per cent of decisions across the line. The average for all councils is 69.69 per cent, or just below City of Ballarat’s score. 

Cr Mark Harris told The Courier the council had “idiosyncrasies” holding decisions up, like all restaurant planning applications coming to the chamber because previous issues with late-night liquor licensing. 

“We’ll look at [cafe planning applications] later this year, and by consensus we’ll be able to take those out of it … you feel generally sorry for those people having to wait a whole cycle for that,” he said. 

“Parking dispensations also makes it sort of clunky … some other cities just say there’s a blanket dispensation for the centre, you don’t have to apply for it. But we do need to do better.”

VicSmart planning decisions should be made within 10 days, while regular planning decisions should be made within 60 days. 

Councillor Ben Taylor said he believed the city now had the “right amount of planners, which has always been a struggle in Ballarat”, with more practical options to reduce planning angst. 

“I’d love to see some other changes around priority given to larger planning matters where we have jobs attached,” he said. “The Department of Justice building, that’s a serious development, but we took way too long to bring it to council.”