Waikato District Council news

Decision on other WDC facilities due on 13 December

Waikato District Council will decide on whether My Vaccine Passes are needed as a condition of entry to its facilities or not within the next couple of weeks.

The exception to this is its campgrounds, Raglan Holiday Park Papahua and Lake Hakanoa Motor Caravan Park in Huntly.

The decision has already been made that My Vaccine Passes will be a condition of entry for those aged 12 and over to those two facilities from 20 December.

People who have already booked a stay from 20 December are being contacted by staff.

The Government announced this week that the Waikato District has moved to “orange” in the COVID-19 Protection Framework.

However, the Auckland boundary restrictions remain in place until at least 15 December.

This means that Council services and facilities will largely run as they are now, but going forward the vaccination status of community members could affect their ability to access all Council facilities.

Council’s decision on My Vaccine Passes for all its other facilities is due on 13 December and it could affect access to facilities such as libraries, pools, community halls, offices and the Council Chambers.

The reason why the decision is not being made until 13 December is that the Council is in the middle of a consultative process with its own staff on a proposed policy that would require all Council employees who are required to perform their duties at work to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

A decision on the proposed staff vaccination policy will be made on 10 December.

“We did not want to undermine our process for the proposed vaccination policy for our own staff in any way by making a decision on My Vaccine Passes for the community before deciding on our own vaccination policy,” says Waikato District Council Chief Executive Gavin Ion.

“But a decision had to be made on our campgrounds immediately due the fact that we have more than 1000 bookings for the period after 13 December and we need to start informing those customers about the need for My Vaccine Passes now.”

Mr Ion acknowledges these are unsettling times for both staff and the community.

“We’ve been changing the way we do things over the past couple of years, and we will continue to do so,” he says.

“Vaccination status can be a divisive issue in our communities. Going forward some of our community may not be able to access our facilities as they have been able to do so in the past, and we’re always looking at ways to serve our entire community to the best of our ability.

“No-one wins in this situation, but we must keep the safety and wellbeing of our staff and our communities at the front of our minds in all that we do – that is the most important thing for us.”