City shuts down non-critical services due to virus

NON-essential operations run by the City of Ballarat will close for at least a month as the municipality does what it can to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

At a press conference on Monday municipal leaders announced the closure of Ballarat Aquatic & Lifestyle Centre as well as Black Hill and Buninyong pools, all municipal libraries, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Robert Clarke Centre and the Eureka Centre – home of the Eureka Flag in Stawell Street for at least one month.

Subsequently further closures were announced including the customer service centres in the Phoenix Building and at town hall as well as the visitor information centre at town hall and Parent Place on Sturt Street.

City of Ballarat mayor Cr Ben Taylor said the changes and closures were aimed at protecting council workers and the community as a whole.

“Ballarat is a resilient city,” he said. “Right now are extraordinary times… This is something that’s really uncharted waters for us as community.

“What’s really important from a city point of view is we need to look after our workforce, we need to look after our community, and we need to look after those most vulnerable.

“As a city we’ve got to make some changes in response to that and we’ll work though what’s needed to be done making sure that we look after, again, the most vulnerable in our community.”

City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley said that the city’s emergency management plan has been activated in response to the pandemic.

As a result, the municipality’s director of community engagement Neville Ivey has been placed in charge of coordination the city’s response to COVID-19.

“Over the weekend we enacted our municipal emergency plan with regard to pandemic,” Ms Linley said.

“I have appointed director Neville Ivey to head up a unit dedicated to response and recovery for the pandemic for the next six-month period.

“We have a team here at the City of Ballarat who are well versed at emergency management, emergency response and emergency recovery. It’s the role of local government to participate in these types of activities and we will be taking a very active role in making sure we all come out better at the end.”

Ms Linley said there would be a range of changes as a result of the pandemic.

“It won’t be business as usual,” she said. “We operate some 70 different services across the municipality and across our community.

“We service a population of 111,000 people, there are 55,000 jobs and employees throughout the community and we’re really keen to make sure the economic health of our community also survives through this.”

Services that would remain open and functional at the time of publication included: Meals on Wheels and home and community care, all childcare apart from the service at the Aquatic & Lifestyle Centre and maternal and child health service and immunisation services.

Also currently unaffected were municipal services like rubbish, recycling and green waste collection. Parks, gardens and Robert Clarke Conservatory would remain open. Road, maintenance and street cleaning would still be undertaken, as would traffic management and parking enforcement.

Of course, the city’s emergency management team will remain active.

Municipal services and departments with altered operating environments include building and planning – which is now by appointment, and the animal shelter – which you’ll need to call for first.

Cr Taylor also called on everyone to heed social distancing and the hygiene recommendations.

“This is not about social exclusion and hiding yourself away inside,” he said. “It’s about being aware of your surroundings around your hygiene.”

While the customer service centres are closed, council staff will still be available via telephone on 5320 5500, via email at [email protected] and regular updates will be provided on council’s website ballarat.vic.gov.au.

Council officers pointed out the situation around COVID-19 was changing frequently and that further alterations to services could take place.