Timaru District Council will be opening some of its facilities from Friday in a staged reduction of COVID restrictions.

The changes being introduced are:

· The council’s offices and cultural facilities will remove the requirement for Vaccine passes from opening on Friday 25 March.

· Caroline Bay Trust Aoraki Centre (CBay) and The Southern Trust Events Centre (STEC), which both contain facilities covered under the COVID-19 protection framework, will still require Vaccine Passes until 11.59pm Monday 4 April, except for school-organised events.

Council Chief Executive Bede Carran said that the Council was keen to make facilities available to everyone as quickly as possible, but this had to be balanced with meeting our legal obligations under the framework.

“We are satisfied that our overall settings under the red level of the COVID-19 Protection Framework have been the right ones to this point,” he said.

“Today’s announcement from the Government has given us a clear pathway to begin to reducing the access requirements for our offices and facilities.

“This is reasonably straightforward for our cultural and service facilities such as the libraries, museum, art gallery, service centres and the main office and so we can move on them quickly.

“However, it will take a little longer for our recreational facilities, which are still required to operate as vaccine pass sites under the red settings of the protection framework.

“In line with the Government’s announcements, we will have removed all Vaccine Pass requirements from every council facility by 11.59 pm on Monday 4 April.

“While there may be a relaxing of vaccine pass requirements, we still have the utmost duty of care to provide the safest working environment for our staff and spaces for the public, so venue limits, appropriate mask wearing, social distancing and proper sanitation policies will remain in place.

“We thank the community for their ongoing patience and support as we work through a complex and evolving situation.”

For more information about Timaru District Council’s COVID-19 Response, visit www.timdc.govt.nz/covid19

Changes in detail:

Cultural Facilities (Timaru District Libraries*, Aigantighe Art Gallery, South Canterbury Museum): No vaccine pass required for access from opening on Friday 25 March. Red light settings on capacity limits and masks will apply.

Council Offices and Service Centres: No vaccine pass required from Friday 25 March. Red light settings on capacity limits and masks will apply.

Recreational Facilities (CBAY, STEC): Vaccine passes required until 11.59pm Monday 4 April, except for School-organised events. Red light settings apply.

* Please note that Timaru Library is closed until 4 April for shelf replacement works.

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