Covid-19 coronavirus: Councils shift to essential services only in lockdown

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Food scraps and glass recycling bins will not be collected in Tauranga and the Western Bay during lockdown, councils have confirmed.

People are being asked to hold on to their glass and food scraps for their next delivery or put them in other bins if they cannot store the items.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced New Zealand would move to Alert Level 4 from 11.59 pm Tuesday for three days.

The Tauranga City Council said, in a statement, the city would keep running but its focus and workforce would shift to supplying essential services to the community.

"Understandably, this will cause some disruption to services, but we thank everyone for their understanding as we all work together to stamp out Covid-19," the statement said.

Under Alert Level 4, the council said it was making essential changes to its kerbside collections service to help "keep everyone safe".

Garden waste, rubbish and yellow-lid recycling bins we all being collected as normal.

"We're unable to collect glass recycling or food scrap bins as they must be picked up by hand as opposed to being lifted by a truck, which poses a health risk to our drivers and the community," the council said

Residents are encouraged to hold onto recycling and food scraps until the next collection.

If that's not possible, food scraps and glass can both go in the red-lid rubbish bin.

Glass in the red-lid bin should be the last resort as it will be sent to landfill, and householders should be mindful not to overfill their bin.

If your rubbish bin is too full, glass can be put into the yellow-lid recycling bin, but it won't be recycled.

During the lockdown, the council said it was unable to provide an assisted kerbside collection service due to the level of manual handling that is required.

If you will miss a collection this week and your bins are full, contractors may be able to visit your property next week to provide an assisted service if it is safe to do so.

Alternatively, if able to do so, take your rubbish or recycling bin to the kerbside on your designated collection day, and it will be collected.

Assisted service customers can call the council if they have any questions about their service.

Bin deliveries are on hold for the next few days and the Te Maunga Transfer Station is
closed to the public.

What you need to know

Waste collection

Garden waste, rubbish and yellow-lid recycling bins will be collected as normal.
Residents are encouraged to hold onto recycling and food scraps until the next collection.
If that's not possible, food scraps and glass can both go in the red-lid rubbish bin.
Assisted services are suspended for a few days and the transfer station is closed.

Parks and playgrounds
Some park gates will be locked, and playgrounds are also closed as Covid-19 can survive on a range of surfaces. Under Alert Level 4 you can still go for walks but avoid spaces where you cannot practice safe social distancing.

As sections of the tracks up and around Mauao are too narrow for people to safely maintain social distance, it will be closed from 7 am and Kaitiaki will be on-site to remind people not to use the tracks. McLaren Falls will also be closed to the public.

Customer Service Centre
The customer service centre is closed but the call centre is available 24/7.
Call (07) 577 7000 or visit the council's website www.tauranga.govt.nz

Tauranga City Libraries
All Tauranga City Libraries are closed. If you have any library items, please hold onto them for now.

Due dates of all loan items have been extended and no overdue fines will accrue.

All book returns slots are closed. Please hold your items until libraries re-open.
Any library item requests received before Alert Level 3 will be held and will be available for pick up upon reopening.

An extensive collection of eBooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines, and other online resources is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Digital Library.

If you don't have a library card, you can apply for a digital-only membership and begin borrowing e-Resources right away.

For up-to-date information visit the Tauranga City Libraries website or Facebook page. You can also get in touch via email or phone 07 577 7177.

Art gallery and venues
Tauranga Art Gallery, Bay Venues Limited (BVL), BayCourt Community and Arts Centre will all be closed.

Transportation
The council will continue to deal with immediate safety issues like dangerous potholes and debris on the road. CCTV cameras will still be monitored, and streetlights will still function.

Community welfare
Emergency welfare and support services are being coordinated by Civil Defence Emergency Management, for which the council has an essential role alongside partner agencies and organisations.

For more information on the council services and disruptions caused by Covid-19 visit www.tauranga.govt.nz and also follow @taurangacitycouncil on Facebook.

Building inspections
There will be no inspections during the Covid-19 Alert level four. Inspections that were planned over the next three days will be rescheduled.

Animal Services
Animal services will continue to manage the pound and respond to dangerous and wandering dogs.

For a full update on Council services and facilities, visit www.tauranga.govt.nz

Western Bay of Plenty Community Facilities

All Western Bay of Plenty District Council libraries, service centres, swimming pools and recycling centres are now closed.

Council CEO John Holyoake said: "To keep our people and our staff safe, we'll be making some changes to our services and will close all non-essential council-run facilities."

As a result, the following facilities will be closed until further notice:
· Council's head office - Barkes Corner
· The Centre – Pātuki Manawa, Katikati
· Ōmokoroa Library and Service Centre
· Te Puke Library and Service Centre
· Waihī Beach Library and Service Centre
· Dave Hume Swimming Pool, Katikati
· Community Recycling and Greenwaste Centres – Katikati, Athenree, Ōmokoroa and Te Puke
· TECT Park

The council will continue to follow Ministry of Health guidelines and other directives from central government to mitigate risks to council services and staff from the pandemic.

Kerbside waste collection is considered an essential service and contractors will continue to collect rubbish bins as usual. For the safety of staff, no sorting can take place during this time.

As such, all glass recycling should be combined into the mixed recycling bin (yellow lid) and food waste should be added into the rubbish bin for the remainder of the week (August 18-20). A further update will be provided at the end of the week.

Pay-as-you-throw tags must be used as usual.

The council said on its Facebook page that it still aimed to divert as much waste as possible from going to landfill.

"Given these circumstances, you can try freezing your food scraps and hold off on putting your recycling out until our recycling centres open once again.