This week’s Council Activity Briefing was a study of numbers, from the 9967 potholes fixed during the past year to the 28,000 phone calls handled by Council’s Customer Service team.

Numbers are important in monitoring and measuring the work Council undertakes with your rates.

It was good to see other roading numbers, like the 20,286 square metres of sealed digout repairs that were completed, as well as the 8.5km of sealed road rehabilitated, 110km of other reseals and 53,472 cubic metres of gravel laid.

The numbers for roading, and indeed every team that reported to the Activity Briefing on Wednesday, help show the breadth of work that Council does to keep providing safe and reliable services for ratepayers, whether they are using the roads or turning on the tap for a glass a water.

Here are some of the other numbers that stood out for me:

• We produced 1013 LIMs (Land Information Memorandums) for the year, up 19% from the previous year, and the second highest volume ever processed. The average processing time was less than three days (the statutory requirement is 10 days)
• EA Networks Centre recorded 512,838 visitors for the year – the largest on record and exceeded last year by 18,511, even with the pool area shut down for a month because of major maintenance.
• We ended the financial year with compliance for issuing 599 building consents at 97.5% in an average of 13 working days (the statutory requirement is 20 days)
• Our Customer Services team dealt with nearly 28,000 phone calls, 17,000 emails, 9700 customer service request and 1150 rates rebates

The Three Waters Committee also met this week with an update of the various drinking water plant upgrades that are coming to a close, and a possible extension to the network to take in Keenans Road.

ACL has the general operations and maintenance contract to run all Council’s water and wastewater treatment plants and pump stations, and they carried out a total of 309 plant visits in June alone, and spent 672 hours on that work.

Another number I noted was that a little over 180,000 people visited Te Whare Whakatere in the year to 30 June, and that number is surely due to the new civic building also being home to the Ashburton Library and its vast number of fun reading and activity programmes.