Stay at Home (4 April 2020)

From the Prime Minister down, the clear message at the moment is – if you can, please stay at home.

The NSW Government is enforcing that message very strongly with police action regarding groups of people if necessary, but quite clearly it is the only sensible thing to do.

Please, please listen to this advice. Staying at home at the moment will save lives.

The advice is to only go out for:

shopping for what you need – food and necessary supplies; medical or health care needs, including compassionate requirements; exercise in compliance with the public gathering requirements; work and study if you can’t work or learn remotely.

Also – please follow the advice about hand-washing. Please don’t spit and have a tissue handy to sneeze into and discard.

Thank you

I’d like to say, from the bottom of my heart, a huge thank you to all health workers who are the front line of the fight against Coronavirus. Never more so have your skills, your commitment, your compassion, your humanity and willingness to go far beyond what is required, been so welcome and so vital. Thank you.

The same goes for all teachers who are doing a wonderful thing at the moment to help support all working parents who need to send their kids to school at this time. Thank you.

#BUYLOCAL #SUPPORTLOCAL

A support package to help alleviate the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic on local businesses and the community was adopted by Councillors last week. I don’t believe anyone would argue with the reasons behind these seismic changes to our daily lives – to try to stop the spread of this potentially deadly virus – but at the same time, it is currently a very, very difficult situation.

Through a Mayoral Minute I put forward, Council has adopted a raft of positive actions that we hope will give businesses a financial helping hand to weather this crisis. They include:

Encouraging everyone to buy local and support local business #buylocal #supportlocal; Amending Council’s ‘Rates, Charges and Fees – Financial Hardship Policy’ to apply to non-residential properties; Suspending new debt recovery actions for outstanding accounts where financial hardship is evident; Removing account keeping fees, late and reminder fees and credit card surcharges; Council buying goods and services from local businesses; Deferring the 2020/21 Special Rate for city centre businesses and associated infrastructure works to the same value; and Providing loan repayment relief for existing loans to community groups.

Find out more by going to www.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au/Coronavirus and clicking on Information for Businesses