Council to ensure all essential services keep running
Hamilton City Council staff have been directed to urgently identify “creative ways” to help minimise the economic impact of COVID-19 on the city.
“Our key focus right now is making sure we do our part of help stop the spread the virus. But we know the potential economic impacts mean this is a really worrying time for people,” Mayor Paula Southgate says.
In a statement released to the media after a meeting with the Councillors yesterday, Mayor Southgate said “We are all very keen to ensure that all possible options are explored and we’re directing staff to be creative about that.
“We are looking with urgency at how we can best support government initiatives, what projects we have in place which could be contenders for funding, and how we can play a role in filling any gaps in our community support.”
“Ensuring we maintain the services our community relies on is vital. Clean water, collecting rubbish and recycling and transport management are keys to supporting the public health response and keeping our city running.”
“No-one should have any concerns about those kinds of services – everything is well under control.”
Ways to reduce any discretionary spending is also under review. A rates freeze for the coming year, was in the Mayor’s view, “too broad brush” as there is already “an existing rates remission and rebates scheme which we could look at extending or adjusting, so these are all options.”
According to the Mayor, the Council was more focused on something much more targeted to those people and businesses who were likely to struggle the most.
“We are absolutely mindful of the impact on local businesses and we want to help, (and) councilllors also expressed strong support for some kind of hardship fund.”
Southgate said she was heartened by the way in which Hamiltonians were responding to COVID-19.
“Hamilton is a resilient city with good solid plans in place. I’m absolutely confident we will come through the other side of this,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Council is implementing contingency plans to maintain essential services to the city while supporting the health and wellbeing of the community and staff in response to Covid-19.
The Council’s Chief Executive, Richard Briggs says the Council has established an Incident Management Team which has been co-ordinating the Council-wide approach.
“We’ve got more than 1000 staff in 27 business units across 20 sites who interact daily with thousands of Hamiltonians. We’re taking steps to make sure we support the national response to this situation, while delivering the services our community relies on, like clean water, wastewater, rubbish collection, transportation and much more,” Briggs says.
“These services are vital, so we have plans in place to respond to events which impact our teams or equipment.”
Some of the Council-run events have been postponed or cancelled, including the FMG Stadium Waikato open day (was Saturday 28 March), Melville Park opening celebration (was Saturday 4 April).
The citizenship ceremony planned for 23 March has also been cancelled and the planned 20 April event is under review. Candidates receiving citizenship at these ceremonies will be contacted directly with details on how their citizenship will be presented.
Waterworld has cancelled or amended bookings for large-scale school swimming events, and Hamilton Gardens has halted guided tours for the remainder of March.
The Council has appealed to those who are unwell to not visit the Council to help protect staff and community, and contact on phone instead.
– from NewsViews
