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Publish Date: 27 April 2021
Buloke Shire Council will welcome a public gallery back for the first time in over a year at its May Ordinary Meeting of Council.
Ordinary Meetings had been closed to public in-person attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic since Council’s meeting back in April 2020.
During this time, inline with directions from the Minister for Local Government, Council had been live steaming its Ordinary Meetings via its website. The fluctuating nature of the pandemic had seen meetings held as a mixture of entirely virtually, face to face and even a hybrid of both.
“Council is excited to once again open our doors to the community and invite everyone back to attend our meetings in person. Community participation is a key plank of any democratic process and getting involved ensures an opportunity to influence decisions that affect us all”, said Mayor, Cr Daryl Warren.
There will be COVID Safe measures in place at the Wycheproof Supper Room including a requirement to sign in for contact tracing purposes as well as density limits and socially distanced seating for attendee’s safety.
Council will also continue to live stream Ordinary Meetings in tandem with public attendance, meeting Local Government Act requirements and continuing to build on its Community Engagement Policy outcomes.
The meeting room will be configured slightly differently to enable both people to attend and the audio-visual aspects of the live broadcast.
“Live streaming of meetings has been well received by our community and offers a genuine alternative to people who can’t attend in person for any reason. An engaged community is an informed community and most importantly, that engaged community informs Council. Council has had as many as 76 people viewing our meetings live and have averaged around 35 people per meeting across our year long live streaming journey. Whilst that may not sound like massive numbers, we have never seen 35 people in the room at any given meeting, so it is giving people another avenue to get involved”, said Cr Warren.
Council’s next Ordinary Meeting will commence at 7.00pm on Wednesday 12 May 2021.
End release For further information contact Manager Customer Engagement, Travis Fitzgibbon on 03 5478 0181 or tfitzgibbon@buloke.vic.gov.au