ON MONDAY 16 MARCH 2020, THE STATE GOVERNMENT DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN VICTORIA DUE TO THE SERIOUS RISK TO PUBLIC HEALTH POSED BY COVID-19 — AN ONGOING PANDEMIC OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE. THIS MOVED TO A STATE OF DISASTER ON SUNDAY 2 AUGUST 2020 AND THEN BACK TO A STATE OF EMERGENCY, WHICH WILL REMAIN IN PLACE UNTIL DECEMBER 2021.
We continued our response to the COVID-19 pandemic across 2020 and 2021 as part of our emergency management operations. Local Government performs a critical role in Victoria’s emergency management arrangements as it is the closest level of government to communities and has access to specialised local knowledge.
In early 2020, we formed several working groups to ensure a reasonable and proportionate response to the pandemic and to the emerging needs. We continued this work throughout 2021, including the COVID-19 Pandemic Committee and a dedicated Response and Recovery Team.
In-line with State Government directives and for the continued good health of our community, we had to continually postpone non-essential services and events and close some of our key facilities, including the Service Centre front counter at Glen Eira Town Hall; Glen Eira Leisure facilities; Glen Eira Libraries; and the Youth Centre.
We also had to make several changes to the operation of facilities offered within public open spaces, including closing playgrounds and fitness equipment across the municipality; closing the Bailey Reserve Skate Park in Bentleigh East; and ceasing bookings of sportsgrounds, pavilions and sports facilities, such as multi-purpose courts, rotundas and picnic shelters.
For those essential services we needed to run (such as immunisation sessions, in-home support, waste, customer service and maternal and child health), we adopted innovative processes that allowed us to operate while complying with social distancing and hygiene measures. This included moving our services online where possible, conducting telephone consultations/appointments and using FaceTime to hold onsite meetings.
With the constant closedown and reopening of our key facilities, we did our best to support affected staff members by redeploying more than 150 staff into other areas of Council and introducing a special COVID-19 leave entitlement of three weeks. We also successfully advocated to the State Government to participate in the Working for Victoria initiative, which created an additional 148 new roles between July 2020 and April 2021. During State Government lockdown restriction periods in 2020, 440 casual staff were not required and were not rostered.
Those staff that could work from home, worked from home during lockdown restrictions between July 2020 and April 2021. As restrictions eased, we welcomed the opportunity to recommence our services with some new ways of delivering services that were well received by the community including online and virtual activities. As short-term lockdowns followed, we continued to close, modify, pivot and reopen our services as required by the directives.
We introduced a range of infection control procedures which kept our staff and community safe. When staff were able to return to the workplace wearing masks they did so adhering to density guidelines.
Like many Victorians, our local community and local businesses have been hard hit by COVID-19 and will continue to be impacted for months and years to come.
On Tuesday 15 December 2020, Council further enhanced its original $7.3 million COVID-19 Response and Recovery Package, which was endorsed on Tuesday 7 April 2020 to $8.9 million total over 2019–2021. The main addition to this was additional funding for small business grants. This package aims to provide immediate financial relief to those most at risk and to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of residents, particularly those more vulnerable and those already experiencing disadvantage.
The package also provides immediate and ongoing support to local businesses, local community groups and sporting clubs to assist them with their ongoing viability post COVID-19.
Some of the key financial concessions and initiatives included in the package were:
- A Rates Financial Hardship Policy enabling ratepayers to defer rate payments with no interest charges for late or non-payment from 16 March 2020 to 30 June 2021.
- Waivers to certain fees and charges to rent relief for Council community tenants and sporting clubs. We assisted 79 community tenants and sporting clubs.
- Automatic refunds for a total of 612 footpath trading permits for the 2020 calendar year and waivers of 649 footpath trading permits for the 2021 calendar year. Council also waived registration fees for 998 food businesses and 182 public health and wellbeing businesses and prescribed accommodation businesses for the 2021 calendar year. For the same period, Council has waived new business registration fees and renewal of registration fees for both the Food Act and Public Health and Wellbeing Act.
- Introduction of dining parklets in our activity centres to assist businesses with seating more patrons. A total of 23 businesses were provided with access to parklets across the municipality to cater for diners; this included one large community parklet installed in Carnegie to help support eight restaurants in one strip.
- The introduction of the COVID-19 Community Action Grants Program — providing community groups and organisations grants of up to $10,000. We provided grants totalling grants totalling $428,391 to 73 community groups and organisations across 2019–2021.
- The introduction of the COVID-19 Community Recovery Grants Program — providing funding for projects that focused on the immediate recovery needs of vulnerable populations and those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Council supported 25 organisations for a total of $114,097 during 2020–2021.
- The introduction of the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Small Business Support Grants — providing local businesses with grants of up to $2,000 each. We provided a total of $877,000 to 453 small businesses across 2019–2021.
- Relaxation of parking infringements resulting in lost revenue of more than $4 million.
- A dedicated local COVID-19 Hotline to support residents, business and community groups looking for information, advice and support during the COVID-19 crisis. More than 700 community members accessed our Hotline to receive support and advice.
- Access to free, professional and confidential counselling sessions for local business owners and community groups through Council’s existing Employee Assistance Program. We assisted 17 people with this.
- Free online weekly fitness sessions run by Glen Eira Leisure and free online StoryTime sessions run by Glen Eira Libraries.
| COVID-19 community financial support | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 Community Action Grants Program | $51,805 | $376,586 |
| COVID-19 Community Recovery Grants Program | - | $114,097 |
| COVID-19 Response and Recovery Small Business Support Grants | $167,000 | $710,000 |
| As part of COVID-19 Response and Recovery Package | $3.2 million | $5.7 million |
The COVID-19 pandemic affected our community and workforce significantly. We have all had to be flexible and adaptive to new ways of working. We will continue our role in support and recovery of the Glen Eira community throughout 2021 onwards. We will continue to consult with the community to implement valuable initiatives that will assist and strengthen community groups, businesses and sporting clubs to remain viable, connected and resilient beyond this challenging time.
Internally, we will continue to focus on bringing our staff back together to further strengthen collaboration, creativity and social connections and recommence major projects that were placed on hold during the peak of the pandemic.
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