Kāpiti Coast District Mayor K Gurunathan says Council will continue do its job and keep essential services running over the next four weeks but the community needs to do its job too – stay at home and save lives.

“New Zealand entered COVID-19 Alert Level 4 Eliminate last night and our lives for the next month will look nothing like what we thought they would just a few short weeks ago,” says Mayor Gurunathan.

“If you’re not providing essential services, then you must stay at home and only make physical contact with those in your bubble. That is your job now and that is how we will save lives.

“As a Council we are focused on supporting the national response, and the health and wellbeing of Council staff and the Kāpiti Coast community.

“We have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure our essential functions including your drinking water supply, waste water services and emergency repairs will continue throughout the lock down period.

“All of our public toilets, playgrounds and dog parks are now closed until further notice. While you won’t see physical barriers preventing access to our playgrounds, please respect these closures as we can’t maintain the required cleaning that would be necessary to prevent the spread of the virus between those using them.”

Kerbside rubbish collections will continue, however, collectors will no longer be picking up separate recycling or green waste. Put this material in your general rubbish wheelie bin or you can stockpile recycling on your property until collections resume – just make sure you thoroughly clean these items. All council transfer stations are closed.

A full list Council’s essential services during a Level 4 Alert is available at kapiticoast.govt.nz/covid19. There are also daily updates on local information on our Facebook page and website homepage.

“Our best chance of making sure this disruption in the chain of infection is successful is for everyone to do their bit. If we don’t comply with the rules, we put everyone in our community at risk and we will likely need to be in lock down for longer.

“Remember this is all about physical distance. For your own mental health, you can, and should, keep in touch with loved ones via the phone, or online. Stay connected with your whānau and friends.

“He waka eke noa – we’re all in this together,” says Mayor Gurunathan.

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