Covid-19

Rubbish and recycling collections are continuing in most areas however there are some changes to ensure our drivers and runners are safe so please place your waste and recycling to the kerbside in the following way.

All items are to be washed clean (wash it like you would your dishes) - this is due to our awesome contractors not being able to handle the items for their health and safety during this time.

Please put:

• Glass in one crate 
• Tins, cans and plastics (labelled 1, 2 and 5)in the other crate. 
• Secured and flattened cardboard/paper should go between or under a crate or in a cardboard box not in the crate.
  
• If you only have one crate, please rotate your recycling. Glass one week and plastic, tins and cans the next week. 

Huntly Transfer Station will re-open on Thursday 14 May. Te Kauwhata Transfer Station will re-open on Sunday 17 May. Normal operating hours at both sites will resume. Both sites will only be accepting rubbish and greenwaste. At this stage no recycling will be accepted and there will be no onsite sorting from public loads – it’ll all be classed as rubbish. There will also be contactless payment at both sites – no cash.

Areas with changes to normal rubbish and recycling collection

Tuakau

Please ensure your wheelie bin lid is closed with the yellow tag on handle so our contractors can collect safely and without damaging bins. For our bag service, it is as normal with blue sticker for collection.

Glen Murray 

The monthly Glen Murray recycling drop off will be going ahead on May 9 (8:30am-12:30pm). View more details.

Raglan 

Community/town halls

Our hall committees are preparing to have our halls open as soon as possible, while ensuring that Government guidance on gatherings, hygiene, physical distancing and contact tracing are followed. To find out when your local hall opens please contact the relevant hall committee. Details are available here.

Woodlands Estate

Woodlands Estate homestead and gardens will be open from Saturday 16 May, following the Government’s Alert Level 2 guidelines on physical distancing, hygiene and contact tracing.

Huntly Aquatic Centre

Details about the opening date of The Huntly Aquatic Centre will be available as soon as possible. But there’ll be a number of restrictions based on Government Alert Level 2 guidance on gatherings hygiene, contact tracing and physical distancing.

Walking tracks

All our walking tracks and walkways are open under Level 2. But the Hakarimata Summit Track in Ngaruawahia, co-managed by DOC and Waikato District Council, remains closed until further notice because of the high number of people who usually use the track leading to difficulties meeting Government guidelines on physical distancing and hygiene.

Campgrounds

The Raglan Kopua Holiday Park will re-open on Friday 15 May while the Lake Hakanoa Motor Caravan Park in Huntly will re-open on Monday 25 May.

Playgrounds

Playgrounds will re-open on Saturday 16 May. This week they are being sanitised and signage is being installed reminding people to keep 2 metres away from people they don’t know. Parents and caregivers will need to make sure children wash their hands before and after using the equipment.

Boat ramps

Boat ramps will be open from Saturday 16 May, except for ones on the Waikato River. These will be open once the rahui on the river is lifted.

There are now FREE Community Based Assessment Centres (CBACs) in Ngaruawahia, Huntly and Pukekohe.

No referral is required. 

Ngaruawahia Panthers Rugby League Club
Opened Thursday 26 March - 9am to 3pm
Whatawhata Road Ngaruawahia 

• Drive-Thru

Huntly War Memorial Hall
Opened Friday 27 March - 10.30am to 3pm 
Wight St Street, Huntly 

• Drive-Thru

Pukekohe Family Health Centre
Opened, Saturday 4 April - 8am – 4pm
10 West Street, Pukekohe

• Drive-Thru

For full details, including when you should or shouldn’t go to the centre please visit the Waikato District Health Board's website or Counties Manukau Health website. 

You can also phone Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for guidance on whether assessment and testing is needed. If you cannot get through to Healthline you can also phone your general practice/doctor for advice.

Waikato District Council is committed to helping our communities run smoothly. We provide a range of services and facilities to the community and the rates you pay allow us to do this. 

There are about 30,000 properties in the district on which rates are payable for maintaining 2,434kms of roads, 51 neighbourhood reserves, 43 sports parks, 12 skate parks, six libraries, three swimming pools, and for the planning, licensing and other services that the Council supplies.  Our targeted rates also help cover assets like 31 water reservoirs, 10 water treatment plants, 9 wastewater treatment plants, 34 community halls, as well as the refuse services that we supply.

If you are experiencing hardship, please contact Waikato District Council by email to rates@waidc.govt.nz or phone 0800 492 452 to discuss and arrange a payment plan or apply for assistance through rates remission/rates rebate.

We are still able to process new LIMs and Property Enquiries except where we cannot access physical records – so we will talk to those customers if they are affected. We can continue to receive Duty Planner enquiries but it will take us longer to get a response to customers.

We are still receiving and processing resource consents but these need to be lodged electronically to applications@waidc.govt.nz. We can continue to receive and will start processing 223 and 224 applications but these need to be lodged electronically to subdivisions@waidc.govt.nz

We will be working in a remote way from our homes, so things are likely to take a little longer. Please note that there are some activities staff will not be able to do.

We will talk to customers when their applications are affected by these limitations.  We will be doing our best and taking work as far as we can but we cannot promise that all applications or enquiries with us will be issued or resolved over the lockdown period. 

Bookings for inspections are now open. Our duty inspectors will not be available for face-to-face meetings but they are available by email or phone, however things may take a little longer than usual.

Get in touch with us:

• Building.Enquiries@waidc.govt.nz
• 0800-492-452

All submitters will be notified and the website updated once a process and its detail is finalised. The Hearing Panel has advised the specific submitters that they anticipate that Hearing 12 Country Living will still go ahead  on 7 April using an internet connection, again, more details on this will follow in the coming days.

Waikato District Council will be suspending all approvals for events across the district for at least the next four weeks.

Events due to take place after the four weeks isolation period will be cancelled as per the Governments direction to cancel all mass gatherings. 

We will be unable to continue processing tentative events during this time. 

On Wednesday 24 March Council approved an emergency decision-making processes to ensure that the Council can continue to make decisions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Level’s 3 and 4.

Council adopted a ‘delegated decision making’ model to ensure that urgent decisions can be made, even if it is impractical for the usual number of Councillors to be physically present at the time of a decision.

The delegation model includes establishing an Emergency Committee comprising six elected members (Mayor Sanson, Deputy Mayor Bech and Councillors Gibb, Sedgewick, Smith and Patterson), with a quorum of just two members.

If it is impractical to convene a meeting of the Emergency Committee (as may be the case under COVID-19 Alert Level 4), the Council approved delegation to any two members of the Emergency Committee the powers, responsibilities and duties of the Council.

If the two delegated members are unable to exercise the delegated powers, the Chief Executive (or the Deputy Chief Executive if the Chief Executive is unavailable), in consultation with the Mayor (or Deputy Mayor if the Mayor is unavailable; or the relevant Committee Chairperson if the Deputy Mayor is unavailable; or the relevant Committee Deputy Chairperson if the Committee Chairperson is unavailable) is delegated the Council’s powers responsibilities and delegations.

Council voted that in event there is a legislative change to enable elected members attending via audio or audio-visual link to be counted as present for the purposes of the quorum, that Council’s standing orders be amended to give that effect.

Council also suspended all other committees and community boards of the Council.

The Chief Executive’s financial delegation was increased to $1.5 million to allow for unanticipated urgent expenditure. The Chief Executive would be required to report back to the Emergency Committee any exercise of this increased financial delegation.