Mayors Message Thursday 13 January 2022

Managing the challenges arising from the spread of the Omicron variant is a shared experience for the people and businesses of Ballarat and beyond. 

From an organisational perspective, the City of Ballarat is planning to ensure its critical services continue operating while the anticipated impacts on the availability of our workforce are managed. 

Critical services include waste management, home and community support, Meals on Wheels, child health, environmental health, customer experience, communications, ICT operations, animal shelter and municipal emergency management. 

Given the surge in cases and other issues related to Covid-19, there will be times when staff will be unavailable.  

Rest assured, we have contingency plans in place for our critical services. These plans outline various scenarios to ensure continuity of services for our community.  

In relation to City of Ballarat events, we have based our planning on current health advice and will adapt delivery of these events as required to ensure the safety of our staff and community. 

Businesses across the Ballarat region are doing the best they can in unprecedented circumstances. 

We are encouraging the community to be kind, patient and considerate and look for ways to help each other during what is a difficult time for everyone.

Ballarat's sense of community is second to none and should be congratulated for its efforts in banding together during this pandemic.

Now is the time for our community to again pull together to meet the challenges in this next wave of the pandemic.

We would like to remind all residents of our shared responsibility to follow the most recent public health directives regarding testing and isolating, getting vaccines and boosters, wearing masks, using hand sanitiser and following social distancing guidelines.

For updates on Covid impacts on City of Ballarat services please visit ballarat.vic.gov.au 

Mayor

Cr Daniel Moloney