Porirua Mayor Anita Baker is committed to keeping the community updated on local issues arising from COVID-19 while juggling her regional responsibilities as the Mayor leading emergency management decisions in the Wellington region.

“If I’m taking time to get back to individual requests and online chat, I’m sorry. Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with many of you. But a combination of working remotely (not always perfect) and some increased responsibilities in emergency management means I’m finding my work patterns have all changed.

“I will continue to post key information but individual requests and on line chat may reduce. It’s not you – it’s me! If it’s urgent you can go through the Council contact centre 237 5089, email enquiries@pcc.govt.nz or use the Antenno app for Porirua.

“The Council, and I as Mayor, are working hard for the city in these very unusual times.

• We’re keeping essential services running – that’s the water flowing to your houses, the waste flowing from it, emergency roadworks, rubbish and recycling collections etc
• We’re trying to keep some non-essential services running too – so our work on the upcoming District Plan, our consenting and regulatory services are still functioning although less visibly
• We’re staffing the regional and local emergency management response – this is becoming more important as the lock down impacts start to be felt
• In particular we’re working with the Government on a welfare response to those in need in our community. Our contact centre staff have been trained to talk to people who are in need and point them in the right direction for assistance

“And we’ve already got an eye on what we need to do when we come out of Alert Level 4:

• Examine the work we had planned and prioritise those things that support jobs and economic recovery for our community as well as essential infrastructure
• Try to minimise the adverse impacts on those hard hit in our community – so keeping up that connection to those in need
• Look at our own spend and see how we can cut costs and services that minimise financial impacts on households while supporting a post Covid 19 recovery
• Get our city up and running again as soon as possible.
• Keep in touch with those in our community who need our support to get back on their feet

“We need to do the right things not necessarily leap to quick conclusions. So we will be considering the impacts across our city in the short, medium and long term. Most of all you need to follow the new rules about physical distancing. Stay home and be kind to one another!”

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