Asset & Facility Risk Assessments

New councillors were worried about the risks posed to their community, so the Mackenzie District Council engaged Xyst to perform a risk assessment on a range of community facilities and assets. Xyst’s team started by performing several site assessments, including the Albury Playground, Twizel Machinery Display, and Twizel Pool, producing several advisory reports for the […]

Parks & Facilities Management

Xyst was brought on board after a thorough risk and performance evaluation of the Mackenzie District Council’s parks and community facilities operations. Xyst was then asked to fill a sudden staff management gap, which quickly evolved into a long-term commitment to manage the District’s public facilities, parks, and community spaces. Throughout this period, Xyst’s team […]

Contract Performance Auditing

Nelson City Council engaged Xyst to carry out contract performance auditing. Xyst has developed an inspection template using a mobile app that allows performance against a set of performance measures from contract specifications to be scored from 1 to 5 and to produce an overall percentage score for each location. Activities audited include grass maintenance, […]

Waitaki Public Toilet Performance Assessment

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 – […]

Yardstick Parks User Surveys

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 […]

Recreation Facilities Utilisation Study

The Xyst team undertook an assessment of the sport and recreation facilities across the Ashburton District, providing key provisions including a gap analysis and trend overview for 17 different sport and recreation activities. To support the analysis, we met with different sport and recreation clubs across the district to understand utilisation of their current facilities, […]

Liz Oldfield

Liz Oldfield

I am a registered landscape architect with over 15 years in the field. I have significant experience working for local government and private practice on the design of open spaces including regional parks, local parks, beach reserves, archaeological sites, war memorial reserves, cemeteries, former quarries and landfills, play spaces, residential subdivisions and commercial landscapes. You […]

Artificial Water Features in Reserves – Safety Guidelines Investigation

Tauranga City Council

Artificial water features can be defined as water play features, ornamental ponds, pools, fountains, cascades, artificial streams, and similar assets. With the exception of water play features, the assets are not interactive water features or water play parks that have been designed and constructed specifically for play. Xyst sought feedback from a number of organisations […]

Nicki Malone

I am a highly experienced open space and local government professional, with more than 15 years’ experience in open space planning, including reserve management, master and concept planning, capital work programme development, project planning and management and community engagement. I have experience in developing relationships and partnering with mana whenua. You can contact me for […]

Jenn Benden

As a Director, my focus at Xyst is across parks and recreation consulting, business development, managing staff, and strategic direction. I grew up in Vancouver, Canada, have lived and worked in Australia, and now live in New Zealand. My specialist areas are strategic planning for parks, sport and community facilities, as well as project management […]

Mark Smith

As a senior consultant, I am able to support clients in many ways with my specialities in asset management, procurement, maintenance contract options, service reviews and project management support. My experience allows me to be flexible in the options I provide for client support. I take a pragmatic and diligent approach to client queries, and […]

Anne Relling

To assist councils and other agencies, I work with them to complete strategic and asset planning to help meet the recreational and open space needs of their communities. I also undertake project management on behalf of councils to implement actions identified in their long-term plans. It’s important to understand every client’s needs. That’s why we […]