Office Front Counter Hours Review

Consultation closed

Council resolved to change our office front counter hours at the 28 April 2025 meeting. Consultation was open from 19 March to 10 April 2025.

From Monday 30 June 2025, our offices will be open to the public:

Mallala: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9am to 5pm
Two Wells: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9am to 5pm
Closed on public holidays

Read the report

Our front counters at our Mallala and Two Wells offices are usually open 5 days a week, from 9am to 5pm. Community members can visit us in person to speak to our customer service officers and ask questions, report issues, make a payment, access documents, or at Two Wells, speak to our planning team.

Unfortunately, we have had to temporarily close our front counters several times over the last few months due to resourcing shortages. When we don't have enough customer service staff to cover both offices, the Mallala Office takes priority to remain open as our nominated Principal Office (a legal requirement).

We know that it is frustrating to arrive to a closed front counter when it would ordinarily be open, and that makes it difficult to plan ahead. Before we make any changes, we want to understand your preferences and expectations of our front counter customer service.

Currently, Mallala sees an average of 3 to 4 customers a day and Two Wells sees 8 to 10 customers.

We are considering 3 options

Option 1: Hybrid approach

A hybrid approach to front counter hours, which would see both offices remain open to the public but on different days of the week. These hours would be:

Mallala Office: open 2 days a week, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Two Wells Office: open 3 days a week, 9:00am to 5:00pm

The days chosen would be based on feedback, current daily visitor trends and library open hours, after this consultation closes.

Option 2: Close the Mallala front office and nominate Two Wells as our Principal Office

The Mallala Office would be closed to the public, and the Two Wells Service Centre would be open 5 days a week and nominated as our Principal Office.

This would mean that customers would no longer be able to visit our customer service team at Mallala for general enquiries, payments or documents. Our Two Wells Service Centre would remain open 5 days a week, from 9am to 5pm and our services would still be available online and on the phone. We would need to undertake further consultation before nominating it as our Principal Office (a legal requirement).

Option 3: Keep both front offices open

Both office front counters would remain open 5 days a week, from 9am to 5pm.

This option would require additional resourcing in the form of budget for extra staff, otherwise issues with temporary, and often unforeseen, closures will continue. If this option is chosen, it may have future budget implications that could lead to an increase in rates.

Other information to consider

In proposing these 3 options, we have considered:

Work health safety of team members covering the front counter, and increased pressure from difficult or aggressive customers due to the decreased accessibility to services.
Our customer service team’s responsibility for a number of legislative tasks, including supporting other teams with administrative assistance, and workload increases for our customer service team during busy periods, especially when there are unexpected shortages due to leave.
Community feedback previously (regarding office locations and service provision).
The Mallala Council Chamber being the current primary location for ordinary council meetings.
Our library service open hours and how that may work with our front office hours.

Give your feedback

Consultation closed at 9am Thursday 10 April 2025.