Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Updates for Hawkesbury Residents

There has been some discussion in the community regarding the post Council shared last night about the closure of the Hawkesbury Waste Management Facility. The following items address the main issues raised;

Why did the facility close? It closed for two reasons:
1️⃣a The Government are urging people to stay at home unless shopping for essentials, leaving for medical or compassionate care; exercising outdoors while distancing or if they have to work or study and it can’t be done from home. If the Waste Management Facility is open we are encouraging people to come out, this is not consistent with the messaging put out by the Government.

1️⃣b This facility can no longer open to the public due to social distancing requirements. The gatehouse at the facility was built many years ago and current Work Health Safety regulations require that there be two people in the gate house. The current social distancing requirements of 4 square metres per person in an enclosed space means that the gate house does not meet these requirements and must be closed.

2️⃣ Will my general waste bin be collected?
Yes, all waste collections including general waste, recycling and organics will be collected as per the usual collection. Residents are asked to place their bins out prior to 4am on the day of collection. Due to the current crisis, your bin collection may not be collected at the exact time as in the past. We ask that you leave your bin out and if you believe it has been missed please report this via our online form www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/media/forms/bin-request or by calling our Customer Service Centre on 4560 4444.

3️⃣ Is the Kerbside collection still operating?
Yes, this service is still operating and we encourage our residents to use this service that is available at no additional cost to any of our residents who are paying for a waste service collection. Past waste audits have found that only a small percentage of our residents book a yearly kerbside collection. Kerbside collections can be booked through Cleanaway by calling 1300 889 527. Further information can be found here https://www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/…/hou…/kerbside-collection

4️⃣ Increased Illegal Dumping
We understand the community are concerned there may be increased illegal dumping in the Hawkesbury if the Waste Management Facility is closed. We urge everyone to take care of the environment around us and not dump. Our Facility is only closed due to the current crisis and we will endeavor to reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. These decisions are being made in the best interest of our staff and our community and we urge our residents to report any illegal dumping to our Customer Service Centre on 4560 4444. All of our other general waste services and kerbside pickup services will be available and we encourage our community to make use of those services.

5️⃣ What about our out of area residents who do not have a waste collection service?
We are investigating further options for the areas which are not currently serviced by our garbage trucks. We will advise of any update on this via our website www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au and Facebook page.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement from yesterday, our playgrounds and parks are now CLOSED. This includes all public playgrounds, skate parks, outside gym equipment and BBQ's facilities in our parks.

Our staff will be placing signage up in these locations over the coming days.

To assist in keeping the Shelter open and reduce the risk to our staff and general public, we have made the following changes to our operations:

1️⃣ Appointment only – viewing of all animals must be done by appointment only
2️⃣ Please call our staff on 4560 4644 to book a time
3️⃣ Only one family allowed in the reception area at one time
🐱 Cats will be shown in the reception area
🐶 Dogs will be shown on the outdoor grass area

These changes in operations have been introduced so that we can keep our Shelter operating which is in the best interest of the animals in our care. We urge the general public to please adhere to our requests.

Due to the Coronovirus (COVID -19) a decision has been made to CLOSE Council's Waste Management Facility at The Driftway, South Windsor for the safety of our staff and the general public. This includes dropping off of ALL general waste by our residents and there will be NO public access to the Community Recycling Centre until further notice. Garbage collections will continue as normal.

We will be reviewing our services and operations further tomorrow following the announcements by the Prime Minister this evening. We will update our community via our website www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au and Facebook page once further decisions have been made.

Council is receiving a number of enquiries about the use of our open spaces. The NSW Government’s Public Health Order (No. 3) link here allows for outdoor open spaces to be used however Council are asking the community to limit the use of our public playgrounds and outdoor recreation facilities like the boat ramps, outdoor fitness equipment or any of our other open space facilities. These spaces can be used provided the community adheres to the numbers around gatherings and social distancing of 1.5 metres.

We are progressively putting up signs in these spaces to remind people that they need to comply with social distancing practices.

In the current environment we are unclear how long we will be able to keep our services and operations open. In the coming days we may need to further reduce our current service levels to keep our staff and the general public safe. We are constantly reviewing the current situation and adjusting the way we do business during the Coronovirus (COVID-19) crisis. We will continue to update our community via our website www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au and our Facebook page.

THURSDAY 26 MARCH 2020 - VALID UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Facilities that are operating as usual are:
✅All kerbside collections – domestic, recycling and green waste
✅Kerbside collection
✅Waste Management Facility
✅Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter (pick up of lost or adopted pets only) Please call 4560 4644 for any general enquiries.
✅Council meetings
✅Customer Service telephone, email and Facebook
✅Visitor Information Centre telephone, email and Facebook

Council is monitoring the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation which is evolving daily. Council will continue to follow the advice of the NSW and Federal Governments.

TUESDAY 24 MARCH 2020 CLOSURES DUE TO COVID-19

• ❌Hawkesbury Central Library
• ❌Richmond Branch Library
• ❌Hawkesbury Regional Museum
• ❌Hawkesbury Regional Gallery
• ❌Richmond Swimming Centre
• ❌Oasis Aquatic and Leisure Centre, South Windsor
• ❌Hawkesbury Indoor Stadium
• ❌Hawkesbury Community Nursery
• ❌Upper Colo Reserve, Upper Colo

Please see the document to the right of the screen under the Council Services - Daily Update heading.

For latest Media Releases in regards to Councils Operations in response to COVID-19 View Here