I have lost count of the number of conversations that begin "I've told the council about this a hundred times and nothing happens". Almost always, when we dig into it, one of three things is true: it was never formally logged, it was logged with the wrong authority, or it was logged once and then never escalated.
None of that is the resident's fault. Nobody is issued a manual. So here is the manual.
01 / Get the right organisationHalf of all failed reports go to the wrong place.
Figure 01 · Who owns the problem
Match the issue to the authority.
| Problem | Who to contact |
|---|---|
| Local road, footpath, kerb, drain, local park, playground, street tree, bins, litter, illegal dumping, overgrown vacant block, animals, local laws | City of Greater Geelong |
| Major arterial road or highway, traffic signals, speed limits, freeway and Ring Road issues | Department of Transport and Planning |
| Trains, buses, timetables, stations, bus stops | Public Transport Victoria / the operator |
| Power lines, streetlight faults on network poles, outages | The electricity distributor |
| Water, sewerage, burst mains, water quality | Barwon Water |
| National park or regional park trails and facilities, including the You Yangs | Parks Victoria |
| Crime, dangerous driving, antisocial behaviour | Victoria Police — 000 if immediate |
If you genuinely can't tell, report it to council anyway. They will refer it. A misdirected report is infinitely better than an unmade one.
02 / Log it properlyThe single highest-leverage thing you will do.
Phone calls and conversations at the shops do not create records. Formal requests do. And a request with a reference number is a thing that can be tracked, chased, escalated and quoted back.
Figure 02 · Anatomy of a request that gets actioned
Six things to include, every time.
Precise location
Nearest street number, cross street, which side, which direction. "Outside 42, on the eastern footpath, ten metres north of the driveway." Vague locations get closed as unable to locate.
A photograph
One photo removes an entire round of correspondence. Two — one close, one wide showing context — removes two.
How long, how often
"Since at least March" or "every time it rains" tells an officer whether this is an incident or a systemic defect. They are handled by different teams.
The actual risk
Who is at risk and how. "Pram wheels catch in the gap and a child came out of the pram last week" gets prioritised very differently to "the path is uneven".
What you want done
Be explicit. Repair, replace, inspect, remove, install. An officer reading a description with no requested action has to guess.
Ask for the reference number
Non-negotiable. Write it down. Everything after this depends on it.
03 / The ladderWhat to do when nothing happens.
Figure 03 · Escalation, rung by rung
Climb one rung at a time. Don't skip.
Most matters resolve at rung two or three. The value of knowing the full ladder is that you stop escalating emotionally and start escalating procedurally.
Anger is not leverage. A reference number, a date, and a specific unanswered question is leverage.— David Greenwood OAM
04 / Working with neighboursMultiply without becoming a petition.
If a problem affects a whole street, the instinct is a petition. For operational matters that is weaker than it looks. Far stronger: each household lodges its own request, referencing the same location, in the same week. Six separate reference numbers about one defect creates a pattern in the system that a single petition does not.
05 / What to expect honestlyNot everything gets fixed.
Figure 04 · Realistic outcomes
Three honest answers you may get.
"Scheduled"
It's in a program with a timeframe. Ask for the timeframe in writing, then diarise a follow-up. This is a real outcome, not a brush-off.
"Assessed, below threshold"
It was inspected and doesn't meet the intervention standard. Ask what the standard is and what would change the assessment. Sometimes it's genuinely marginal; sometimes the standard itself is the argument.
"Not funded this year"
The honest answer for a lot of capital work. This is where a councillor and the budget submission process matter more than another service request.
A clear no with a reason is a legitimate result. What isn't acceptable is silence.
If you're in the You Yangs Ward and you've climbed to rung three without progress, send me the reference number, the date you logged it and what you were told. I'll chase it. If you're outside the ward I'll point you to the right councillor. Email david@centrestage.org.au.