Yarra Ranges Council is committed to working towards a Yarra Ranges where everyone has equitable access to resources, power and opportunities. This commitment is documented in the current Council Plan 2022-25.
The Gender Equality Act 2020 requires local governments to conduct Gender Impact Assessments on all policies, programs and services which directly and significantly impact the public.
Xyst in partnership with Emerge completed the study.

Xyst was engaged to assist Napier City Council with the development of a bid for the Women’s FIFA World Cup 2023. The bid was for McLean Park to be utilised as a training venue to the World Cup. The bid was successful and will host an international team mid 2023.

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.

Dunedin City Council engaged Xyst to undertake a review of the pool network across the city and the services provided across the network. While the Council plays a significant role in the provision of pool space for the population, school and community pools make a significant contribution in providing equitable access to pool space citywide for the Dunedin community. Collectively Council, school and community pools make up Dunedin’s aquatic network.

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.

For Southland District Council, levels of service were prepared by Xyst for a range of assets within six activity areas:

1. Parks and Reserves (Open Spaces)
2. Cemeteries
3. Public Toilets
4. Community Centres
5. Community Housing
6. Water Structures (wharves and jetties)

Benefits of a robust level of service approach include:
• Consistency of service delivery
• Mechanism for changing levels of service and addressing disparity
• Significant financial lever to control costs or accelerate expenditure
• Strategic hierarchy on which to base development of subsequent plans, financial reporting structure, asset hierarchy and service standards

To assist in driving a “user experience” approach to levels of service, the six activity areas were further organised into 12 categories, reflecting a mix of assets and services that support the intended experience. These levels of service were designed to provide comprehensive direction to asset managers so that they are able to deliver the desired levels of service through appropriate acquisition, design, development, maintenance and operation of the facilities and services.

To undertake this work for Waitaki District Council, Xyst used its public toilet performance assessment tool to provide an individual assessment and report for each public toilet complete with photos and an overall performance score. Each toilet was assessed for:

• Facility description (materials, gender configuration, location)
• Condition (floors, walls, ceiling, fixtures, roof – external ground-based visual assessment only)
• Performance from a customer perspective (cleanliness, safety, design, etc)
• Conformance to accessibility standards
• Crime Prevention through environmental design – CPTED
• Potential for addition of visitor counting technology

A summary spreadsheet was prepared to provide a database of the attributes for each toilet and a summary report in powerpoint format highlighted key issues for consideration.

In early 2022 Yarra Ranges Council engaged Xyst to undertake a performance assessment of three shared use trails: the Lilydale Lake Trail, the Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail, and the Yarra Valley Trail. This was a follow-up to an earlier survey carried out in 2019.

Performance assessments were conducted in March 2022 using the Yardstick Trail Survey tool, which was developed by Xyst to explore trail use and measure user satisfaction with a range of trail features. The survey tool is a mobile application that allows intercept surveys to be carried out and synced directly to a cloud-based database. Results are reported online immediately and can also be exported and analysed to produce a report.

Yardstick Parks User Surveys were developed in around 2008 initially as a paper based intercept survey designed to target park users and measure satisfaction with a range of parks related services and features. The product was initially called Parkcheck and is still known as this by some users.

The surveys were taken online in 2015 with the development of a web-based survey application that enabled collection of surveys in the field on a mobile device with off-line capability. Surveys can be uploaded where wifi or cell phone service is available and data can be reported immediately.

Surveys have a set of standard questions that are relatively fixed but have undergone some improvements in wording over the years. Organisations can also choose from a library of optional questions or develop and include new optional questions of their own for specific issues.

Survey results are available in online reports in much the same way as benchmarks results. However, organisations also receive a manually produced report which comprises a summary of results in pdf and word format using charts produced in excel. The report is around 30 to 40 pages long and is produced from templates in word and excel derived from previous reports.

Since going online, the survey tool has been used around 110 times in Scandinavia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Xyst undertook a feasibility study to determine whether the building could be restored and then for the sustainability of the restored building to remain in sound condition for those activities to be held within and associated to the original Church.

Xyst undertook a Needs and Feasibility study on a proposed multi-purpose circuit, unique to New Zealand due to design specifications meeting the international speed skating requirements whilst also meeting cycling, walking and running event requirements.
Assessing the need, Xyst considered the population in the catchment and the growth predictions, the number of potential users given the activities for which the circuit can be used, and the opportunity for wider event activity the circuit can serve.
To determine the feasibility of the project and future financial sustainability of the circuit the Feasibility Assessment considered the project cost against the funding opportunity, and the ongoing costs against the funding model.

Key findings of the performance assessments, accompanied by some high level analytical commentary was completed, with each playground assigned an overall performance assessment score. Analysis included site design, play value, quantity of play items, equipment condition, safety surface condition and an assessment of remaining life of the asset.

The purpose of the parks performance assessment was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each park, from a multi-faceted holistic perspective, and particularly from the users’ perspective. Recommendations to retain, change or assign (where none previously existed) service classifications for each park were made.

Xyst provided a qualitative assessment of existing shade throughout the network and completed a current condition assessment for structural shade infrastructure.
Analysis was provided to assist the Council to determine the current and future needs for shade within the facilities, and objective recommendations were made based on results and findings of the audits.

Undertook an assessment of each playground using the Playable Space Assessment Tool, Play England 2009, which has been adapted by Xyst. The tool enabled an assessment to be made of location, play value and ancillary facilities to produce an overall percentage score for each playground, ranking each playground to enable priorities to be identified objectively and strategically.