Council’s COVID relief changes
Taupō District Council is taking immediate measures to reduce the COVID-19 lockdown's impact on our community.
Mayor David Trewavas announced the initiatives today: "Our actions are aimed to ensure we are being fair to our customers and ratepayers, and not causing additional financial hardship during the resurgence of this virus.
"While we await guidance from the Government on alert level changes tomorrow, it is clear that the lockdown will have an effect beyond the end of this week."
Taupō District Council will move swiftly to implement the following measures:
Rates instalments update
Rates instalments were due last Friday 20 August, and penalties were initially delayed until tomorrow. We have now delayed these by just over a further month to Thursday 30 September. This allows any ratepayers experiencing financial hardship an additional four weeks extra to pay their rates instalment without penalty. We will be proactively communicating with ratepayers on this and, as always, encouraging the uptake of payment by Direct Debit.
Community Leases and Licences
A very large number of our community organisations, clubs, societies and licence holders who occupy Council facilities have not been able to operate during the lockdown. We will be writing to all leaseholders and licence holders (more than 120) to offer a one month payment holiday. We will review this at a later date if we feel the impact of the resurgence warrants further relief.
AC Baths and Fitness Studio memberships
Memberships for AC Baths and Fitness Studio (roughly 1000) have been placed on hold until facilities reopen. This means no further payments are due from members during this period and no value to them is lost.
Venue hire
We have had 29 event postponements or cancellations since last Tuesday. Where organisers have already paid a deposit these are being refunded in full. When venues are able to reopen we will be offering a discount on booking fees to encourage events to be re-booked. Please note, this discount will only apply to existing bookings we've had to postpone due to the effects of COVID and the associated alert level changes.
Library fines
All overdue fines which accrue while our libraries remain closed will be waived. We also plan to allow a grace period to return overdue items once the libraries reopen.
Parking fines
No additional parking fines are being issued during lockdown, but we have also placed a hold on any overdue fines being progressed for the time being.
Dog fines
For safety reasons, we continue to issue Dog Fines where our Compliance Officers think this necessary.
“Thanks to everyone for continuing to do what we can to stamp out Delta. We will get through this, together,” Mr. Trewavas said.
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All council offices remain closed, however, if you would like to discuss your individual situation, please get in touch with us at info@taupo.govt.nz or call us on 0800 ASK TDC.
If you need help with financial assistance or social service support (food grants etc), please visit www.msd.govt.nz or ring the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) on 0800 559 009. This number is for everyone who may need assistance.
It is normal to feel anxious or stressed in times of difficulty. There are useful tips on how to stay all mentally healthy and where you can get help at www.covid19.govt.nz/wellbeing