OCTOBER 16, 2019 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
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United off to flying start Western United is off and running in its inaugural A-League season, claiming a 1-0 victory over Wellington on Sunday. Head coach Mark Rudan said it was pleasing to be playing games for points, after a long build-up establishing the club in the west of Melbourne. “As a new club we’ve been working tirelessly behind the scenes to build this football club, but now we start to rock and roll,” Rudan said. “It’s been a good response from the … community, particularly the first three practise games at Caroline Springs which exceeded our expectations in terms of the people who supported the football club or wanted to find out what we’re all about. “We’re working very hard away from the football field to connect with the community.” Rudan said showing the western region what the club was about was a big focus in its early days. The club has a current membership base of just over 2500 and is hoping to double that in its first season. Head of football Steve Horvat said it had plans to open a football academy in the west in the next 12 months, and was hopeful of expanding into other areas. ■ More in sport: Page 51 Ewen McRae
The crowd cheers at the final practice game in Geelong. (Alan Barber) Inset: Inaugural captain Alessandro Diamati with Mark Rudan. (Supplied)
Cold on complaints By Esther Lauaki Wyndham council is one of just five Melbourne councils which failed to provide complaints data to a recent Victorian ombudsman’s report. The ombudsman surveyed all local governments to determine how they define complaints and how many complaints they received in the past calendar year, among other things. The survey found Wyndham council received 20,491 “requests for service”, but the number of complaints was not supplied because of
limitations in its reporting systems. “We cannot supply accurate data for complaints,” a Wyndham council spokesperson told the ombudsman. “Some channels are not captured in our database, however a new policy and system configuration will soon provide this. “We are not confident of current numbers being reported.” In Wyndham, if complainants are dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint and request an internal review, the review would be conducted by a senior officer who was not
previously involved in the matter. Victorian ombudsman Deborah Glass said many councils were understating the number of complaints they receive, raising concerns about how they deal with dissatisfaction from the community. “Far too many councils still adopt a narrow definition of complaint or interpret it narrowly in practice,” Ms Glass said. “Not only is it impossible to compare the councils, those who understate the level of public dissatisfaction may well be failing to deal with it.” Ms Glass said one of the main causes of
complaints about councils to her office was the way councils dealt with complaints. “All too often complaints are seen as a nuisance, or provoke a defensive, unhelpful, bureaucratic response,” she said. “Complaints are actually a good thing – they are free feedback. “Whether about a missed bin, blocked drain, rates notice or parking ticket, they say something about council services. “Capturing them as complaints allows councils to consider what may be needed to address systemic patterns of dissatisfaction.”
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