Food poisoning happens when you eat food that hasn’t been prepared, stored, displayed or transported safely. The time between eating the food and the appearance of the first symptoms may be as short as one hour or as long as a week or more. This means that the last meal you ate may not necessarily be the culprit.

Vomiting, fever and chills, diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal pain, bloody stools, headache, lethargy and loss of appetite.

There are several things you can do to help our Environmental Health Team:

• Place any contaminated or leftover food in the freezer until the Environmental Health Team comes to collect it.
• Keep any packaging and proof of purchase to help us identify what the product is and where it was purchased from.
• If the food is contaminated, try to leave the foreign object where you found it.
• Write down the details of where and when you bought the product, how you transported it home, where you stored it (and when you noticed the foreign object, if relevant).
• If you have food poisoning, write down what you ate seven days before you became ill. This will help the Environmental Health Team investigate possible sources of your illness.
• Visit your GP, they can test to confirm if it is food poisoning.

Give us a call on 1300 133 466 , make a food safety complaint or report a food establishment issue.

Depending on how sick you are, see your GP and visit your nearest Emergency Room.

Stay warm this winter without breaking the bank! Efficiently managing your wood heater can save you money and protect the environment.

Improperly managed wood heaters not only waste money but also harm the environment and health. Follow these tips to make the most of your wood heater:

1. Check your flue/chimney before using the heater. Look for soot build-up, holes or leaks, and remove excess ash to prevent chimney fires.
2. Burn only dry, seasoned, untreated wood. Properly stored dry wood burns efficiently and reduces costs. Avoid burning wet, green or treated wood to save money and minimise smoke.
3. Start with small, dry kindling to ignite the fire. Once the flame is established, stack wood in the firebox for proper air circulation. Run the heater with air controls open for a few minutes before and after adding logs.
4. Regularly inspect your flue/chimney. Initial smoke is normal, but continuous grey smoke indicates incomplete burning. Adjust fuel load and air settings to reduce smoke and pollution.
5. Address excessive smoke from your neighbour's wood heater by communicating with them about the issue.

For more details, contact Council on 1300 133 466

We’ll remove graffiti from any infrastructure, buildings, structures, fences, facilities, common boundary fences, roadways, paths and lanes that we own.

We have a dedicated staff member who actively manages and removes graffiti from property that we own, and our team proactively assesses areas that we know are targets for graffiti.

If your property has been graffitied, it’s your responsibility to remove the graffiti.

We’ll always aim to work cooperatively with property owners to remove the graffiti or have the graffiti removed, but if the graffiti isn’t removed within a reasonable time frame, we do have the right to manage graffiti in the community (this is under the Local Nuisance & Litter Control Act 2016.

Our officers may issue the property owner with a Nuisance Abatement Notice, which will set out a specific time frame that the graffiti needs to be removed by. If the property owner doesn’t remove the graffiti in this time frame, we may charge penalties.

We provide residents with free, self-managed graffiti removal kits to use on private property within the City of Mitcham.

To apply for a Graffiti Removal Kit, fill out a Graffiti Removal Kit Application form and read and sign the conditions of use checklist.

Graffiti Kit 1 - Sensitive surface graffiti remover

Safety precautions fact sheet

Material safety data sheet

Graffiti Kit 2 - Bare brick, stone and masonry surfaces

Safety precautions fact sheet

Material safety data sheet

For further information contact our Customer Communications team on 1300 133 466.

Air conditioner units and pool pumps are examples of fixed domestic machine noise on a domestic premises.  Noise may be considered a nuisance if the noise has travelled from the domestic premises to a habitable room, or an outdoor courtyard or entertainment area, on neighbouring premises.

Lawnmowers, power tools and moveable equipment are examples of non-fixed domestic machine noise. These machines:

• Noise should not travel from a domestic premises to neighbouring premises between the hours of:
• 8pm and midnight on any day; or
• midnight and 9am on Sunday; or
• midnight and 8am on any other day.

Any construction noise that impacts the local area must not travel from the location of the construction activity to neighbouring premises:

• on any Sunday or public holiday; or
• after 7pm or before 7am on any other day.

If you have any concerns about ‘people noise’ (such as parties, loud music and revving cars), give SA Police a call on 131 444.

If you have any concerns about animal noise (such as dogs and roosters) give us a call on 1300 133 466.

If you have any concerns about noise from licensed premises (such as pubs, nightclubs and other premises licensed under the Liquor Licensing Act 1997, give Consumer and Business Services a call on 131 882.

Try and resolve the matter yourself by talking to the person making the noise (they might not be aware of the noise impacting you!). If that doesn’t work, give us a call on 1300 133 466.

• Members of the public can pay to use the pool
• It’s available for use by people staying at:
  • A hotel, motel or guest house
  • A camping or caravan ground
  • Any other similar where accommodation is provided on a temporary basis
• Available for use by people who live or work in, or attend, the premises where the pool is situated, other than where the pool is used in connection with a single private residence and is only available for the use of residents or their guests. This includes flats or units with a shared swimming pool and schools.

When they inspect a public swimming pool, our Environmental Health Team will look for a number of things, including:

• The pool is fitted with automatic equipment that continuously analyses and controls the level of disinfectant in the water
• Acceptable pH water level
• Acceptable disinfectant (eg chlorine), pH and alkalinity levels
• A log book that details the results tests or readings carried out
• All equipment (eg filters) are kept in clean and efficient condition
• The pool is clean and there are no leaves, algae, broken tiles or rusty ladders.

Got questions? Call 1300 133 466.

Swimming pool backwash water must not be discharged to or allowed to run-off into roadways, gutters, creeks, rivers, lakes, coastal waters or neighbouring properties.

Backwash from swimming pools must be directed to the sewer. Swimming pools should be permanently connected to the sewer at the time of installation or construction, and with approval from SA Water. Don’t let pool water run into septic tanks or other waste water disposal systems; use the water on grass or garden areas or stone-filled trench areas.

Don’t forget: If you have a salt chlorinated pool, you need to have salt tolerant plants and occasionally water with clean, good quality water.

For more information, give the Environmental Health Team a call on 1300 133 466 or visit the EPA website.

For tips on looking after your pool at home visit SA Health.

1. We always strive to resolve issues without doing a formal review. Give us a call on 1300 133 466 or visit our customer service centre at Civic Centre, 131 Belair Road, Torrens Park.
2. If our customer service team can’t help, ask to speak with a senior officer. Read our guidelines for how we deal with formal requests for a review of a decision of Council, our employees and other people acting on behalf of us.

For some decisions, legislation provides for a statutory process to appeal and/or review certain Council decisions. These decisions are outside the scope of a section 270 review. Here’s a list of the Acts that have specific appeal and/or review procedures relevant to certain Council decisions appear below:

• Community Titles Act 1996
• Dog and Cat Management Act 1995
• Environment Protection Act 1993
• Expiation of Offences Act 1996
• Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005
• Food Act 2001
• Freedom of Information Act 1991
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (South Australia) Act 2013
• Local Government (Elections) Act 1999
• Local Government Act 1999
• Natural Resources Management Act 2004
• Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016
• Road Traffic Act 1961
• Roads (Opening and Closing) Act 1991
• South Australian Public Health Act 2011
• Strata Titles Act 1988
• Supported Residential Facilities Act 1992
• Work Health Safety Act 2012

You can write to us or complete this application form. Your application must be in writing and set out the reasons for applying for the review (why you believe that our decision is wrong). We may also ask you to supply evidence to support your application.

Send to: Application for Independent Review of a Decision, Chief Executive Officer, City of Mitcham, PO Box 21, Mitcham Shopping Centre, TORRENS PARK  SA  5062

At any point during this process you can request an external review by contacting the Ombudsman or taking legal action. The Ombudsman prefers complaints to be addressed first by us.

Contact the Ombudsman

If you have any questions or need help completing the application, give our team a call on 1300 133 466 or send an email to mitcham@mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au