Waipā District Council announces its services that will operate through lockdown

Customer support via telephone and online will still be available during the four-week lockdown. Photo / Supplied

Essential services such as recycling, road safety, water, customer support and animal control will continue to operate throughout the four-week lockdown which will come into effect tomorrow.

Waipā District Council today confirmed the following essential services would remain open during the mandatory shutdown period being imposed by the Government to help fight the spread of Covid-19.

Key services include but are not limited to:

- Customer support via telephone and online.
- Essential water services such as repairs to waste water connections and major water leaks.
- Parks services such as treescaping and line clearance when urgently required.
- Cemetery duties.
- Road safety, essential repairs to roading where necessary and monitoring of high-risk roads.
- Recycling.
- Urgent animal control work where there is a risk to the public and continued operation of the pounds.
- Urgent building compliance work where there is a risk to public safety.

Other Council services which are considered non-essential facilities including its Cambridge and Te Awamutu offices, playgrounds, halls, libraries will shut during this time.

Waipā District Council chief executive Garry Dyet said it was essential for members of the community to remain calm and support each other.

"Council will continue to operate as many services as possible while keeping our staff safe and complying with Government regulations. The next four weeks will be a time of change but we need to be kind to each other and understanding of the situation," says Garry.

"Our customer support team will still be answering calls and we'll be trying to address any concerns and issues raised by residents where possible. Not everything will be feasible but we will absolutely try our best."

Garry said Council would continue to communicate with residents and keep them informed of any changes to services during the lockdown period.

An emergency meeting will be held tomorrow for Council to discuss how it will continue to govern during this time.

For more information on Covid-19 head to https://covid19.govt.nz/.