Media Response |

- City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley

The City of Ballarat is working through a range of opportunities and proposals to provide information and services to visitors, residents and businesses.

With a growing community – one of the fastest outside of metropolitan Melbourne – and increasing numbers of visitors and new businesses, it is important Council and its partner organisations, including Visit Ballarat, meet the challenges and demands for accessible, reliable civic and visitor services.

City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley said: “What we have become increasingly aware of is the reality that people don’t particularly care who they receive information from, but what they do care about is how accurate it is, how easy it is to access and how they are welcomed into a city.

“We are listening to what people have been asking for some time, and that is the ability to come to one place in central Ballarat to get the information they need, to ask questions, to be heard and to find out about the full range of services that not only Council provides but the events and activities that make Ballarat a great place to live and visit.”

Visit Ballarat CEO Noel Dempsey said: “We are working with the City of Ballarat to look at the best ways of providing information, support and customer services for all customers. We know that visiting friends and relatives in Ballarat is a key part of our growing tourism market – and residents are the ones that seek out this information and can be our best advocates for tourism in Ballarat.

“While decisions are yet to be made, the conversations have started to look at better ways of collaborating to see the Ballarat Town Hall as a central place for our community, our residents, our businesses and our visitors.”

Ms Linley said: “Both the City of Ballarat and Visit Ballarat highly value the time, dedication and service provided by not only the City of Ballarat customer service staff but the great band of Visitor Information Centre volunteers who go out of their way to make anyone who comes to the Ballarat Town hall feel that genuine, warm Ballarat welcome. We look forward to continuing the discussions to make the Ballarat Town Hall a great centre for the community, bringing it back to what it was originally planned to be in the height of Ballarat’s gold rush – the place built by the community for the community.”