Hoax alert - 1 April, 2020We’ve just been made aware of a hoax circulating on Facebook messenger. It claims to be official advice from our council that Northland businesses may re-open and lock-down is lifted – this is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. Hoaxes like this put people’s lives at risk. We have informed the police of this hoax and urge people to let us know if you see anything else like this circulating. |
Office closures
All our offices are now physically closed to the public, but we are still working behind the scenes to maintain our services as best we can and ensure the delivery of essential services.
During this time, our essential services will include: civil defence emergency management, ensuring maritime navigational safety plus flood and drought monitoring and management. We will also do our best to continue environmental monitoring deemed critical to ensuring the health and wellbeing of Northland communities.
This list is likely to evolve over time, in liaison with central government.
Customer service
You can still contact us by phone or email. Details of those numbers can be found on our website: www.nrc.govt.nz/contactus
Environmental Hotline
Our 24/7 Environmental Hotline is still available for reporting pollution or marine incidents toll free on: 0800 504 639.
Our staff will need to prioritise calls as they come in and respond to them to the best of our ability given the current restrictions.
CityLink Whangārei Buses
CityLink Whangārei Services will be running six days per week (Monday – Saturday).
From Thursday, 26 March they will be running to a Saturday timetable every day.
This service is for people undertaking essential travel only such as going to work at essential service workplaces and going to the supermarket or the pharmacy.
Several safety measures are being put in place to ensure social distancing can be maintained for drivers and passengers. These include using the rear door to board the bus and blocking off the seats directly behind the driver.
More information is available on: citylinkwhangarei.co.nz
Business helpline
Northland Inc have a Business Support Helpline set up for Northland businesses. Phone them on: 0800 525 001.
You can find information, advice and support resources to get your business through the evolving impact of COVID-19 at: www.northlandnz.com/covid-19
Council meetings
An emergency Northland Regional Council meeting took place on Wednesday, 25 March and clarified emergency decision-making procedure during the pandemic response period.
The next council meeting will take place on 21 April as planned.
All formal meetings of council will be held remotely until further notice and the public should refer to our website for more information as it becomes available.
Annual Plan 2020/21
The situation with Covid-19 has changed rapidly, and things look very different now than when council was developing its annual plan proposals. We realise Covid-19 may have impacted on your ability to make a submission, however extending the submission period may put at risk our ability to adopt an Annual Plan for next year and continue to deliver services to support our community. Please be assured, the impacts of Covid-19 on our Northland households, will be top of mind as we consider what our final annual plan will look like this year.
Events
In line with government direction, all events have been postponed and we’ll provide information and updates as we can.
Regional Harbourmaster's update
We urge the public not to go out on the water during this period. Follow the advice of Maritime New Zealand and Coastguard: stay home – do not risk putting yourselves in the situation where you need emergency help. The emergency services need to be fully available to respond to COVID-19. Therefore, it is vital that people are sensible about what types of outdoor exercise/activities they undertake and where.
See the media release issued by maritimenz.govt.nz
Stay up-to-date
We will continue to provide public updates as we have them available on this page of our website.
Facebook will be our main social media channel, with updates to Twitter and Instagram as we are able to provide them.
Find links to all our social channels at the top right hand side of our website: www.nrc.govt.nz