Mayoral Matters - August 2020

Published on 21 August 2020

Northern Grampians Shire Council is ‘In It Together’ to protect and support

The Coronavirus Pandemic is well and truly impacting our lives in a lot of ways and particularly at the moment with the return to Stage Three restrictions. In light of this, last week council  launched a campaign to support your needs better called “In It Together”. 

This campaign is an all-encompassing, locally-specific COVID-19 support network driven from a hotline number you can call for any information or query you have.  

It is very simply a matter of calling our existing customer service number on 03 5358 8700 and our customer support team will direct your query through to COVID-19 specialist teams in business, community services, emergency management and environmental health or refer you to another agency better equipped to assist you.

The scope of this campaign is very broad and whilst you might assume it is attuned specifically to emergency responses it is also there to encourage you to be creative and help us all feel positive in the current environment.

We might be socially isolating and keeping our hygienic distance from each other but that does not mean that we cannot be supportive and interact with each other in new ways. 

Behind the scenes, the team at Northern Grampians Shire Council have been meeting regularly with a group of pandemic agencies such as local healthcare providers, Victoria Police, CFA, DHHS, schools and educators, neighbourhood houses and more to ensure that the concerns of our residents are tabled and appropriate solutions are delivered where they are needed. 

Along with the provision of phone support, we have also devised a number of hard copy and digital resources for the community such as resident postcards to assist with understanding the current restrictions and a list of local support services. The postcards were delivered to all residents in the municipality late last week. Please contact the hotline if you have not received your copy.

I cannot reiterate more strongly that we need to keep our community safe and we need to be constructive. We need to work together as the bottom line is we are “in this together” and together we will get through this. 

Cr Murray Emerson
Mayor Northern Grampians Shire Council