General News
15 August, 2024
Grampians council praises business
Local business Wimmera Mallee Waste has been congratulated by Northern Grampians Shire Council after the company’s first month of service within the shire saw a drastic reduction in residents’ complaints.
A council spokesperson said an average of 34 complaints per month were previously made by residents who grew fed up with their bins not being picked up, and that this was the number one source of complaints within the shire’s waste management process.
Wimmera Mallee Waste was successfully awarded the waste contract after council put it up for tender earlier in the year, and commenced work on July 1.
“Northern Grampians Shire Council has a robust procurement process that requires value for money,” Northern Grampian Shire Council mayor Rob Haswell said.
“Rainbow-based business Wimmera Mallee Waste has an enviable record, with the lowest number of missed bin complaints across the region.”
Cr Haswell said council had seen a 24 per cent improvement in missed bins, and that all reported issues were resolved within 48 hours.
“Better communication by Wimmera Mallee Waste has also been reported,” Cr Haswell said.
“We believe that ratepayers and residents across Northern Grampians Shire will continue to receive better value, better communication and a better service from Wimmera Mallee Waste.”
Wimmera Mallee Waste director Mick Parry said he was delighted to hear positive feedback from councils and residents of the areas they service, and that his business prided itself in the “old-fashioned" values such as honesty, communication and good service.
“It’s the simple, basic values - doing what we say we are going to do on time,” Mr Parry said.
“Relationships are really important, and we spend a lot of time building relationships with the people we work for so we understand their expectations and keep them up-to-date with how we are trying to meet them.
“We spend a lot of time trying to meet what are reasonable expectations, and monitoring things to make sure we are meeting the standards and expectations of both our company, our clients and the community.”
Mr Parry said much of the credit for good communication was due to the company’s operations manager Graham Nuske, who is the first point of contact for any service issues.
“That’s his area, and he is very good at it,” Mr Parry said.
“We keep an eye on the local councils’ Community Satisfaction Surveys and monitor how the ratepayers feel about waste management in the communities we service, and we encourage councils where we have put a tender in to do the same.
“It is a great opportunity to be compared to other providers, and the results highlight everything we have to be proud of.”
Wimmera Mallee Waste currently delivers kerbside collection of waste and receives recyclables from eight local councils - an area measuring a little over 20 per cent of the state
Mr Parry said they collected more than 10,000 tonnes of recyclable waste per year, and deliver it to Melbourne for processing.
“We get people who want us to tender for similar waste management services, like liquid waste,” Mr Parry said.
“We keep looking at those things, but I think there is no point going off in that direction until we really believe that what we are currently doing - kerbside collection and hook-lift bins - we are doing the best that we can.”