Office to remain closed
Following the Government’s announcement today, Environment Southland’s office will remain closed.
On Monday, Environment Southland closed the office in order to prepare for transitioning many of the staff to working from home, in response to the Government’s guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The continued closure means the Environment Southland incident management team can implement the Government’s direction of closing non-essential offices and moving staff to working from home now that the alert level has been escalated to 3, and to alert level 4 at midnight on Wednesday.
We are asking people who have queries or business with the council to call us on 0800 76 88 45, visit our website www.es.govt.nz or email us service@es.govt.nz.
Chief Executive Rob Phillips said that these unprecedented times require extraordinary measures to keep our people and our communities safe.
“We are continuing to follow all guidance from the Ministry of Health and central government. At these times it is important that we protect the safety and wellbeing of our staff and the wider Southland community. It’s also essential we fast track our planning to get ourselves set up to work from home as quickly as possible.
“These are strange and difficult times, and it’s important that we remember to be kind to one another, follow the Government's advice and stay at home.”
Further updates on the council’s response to COVID-19 are available at https://www.es.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19-information
Note: All four Southland councils are focused on looking after our staff and our communities every day. We encourage anyone who is feeling unwell, worried or scared about COVID-19 to visit the Government’s dedicated COVID-19 website - it will answer many of your questions and give you phone numbers to ring for further information.
To find out what all our councils are doing locally, please check our websites and social media – we are working hard to have information relating to our services on these sites and will be updating them regularly.
We encourage you to take care of yourselves and your families, and be kind to others. Check in on elderly neighbours and offer support if you can. If you are not feeling well, stay home. Practise good hygiene by washing your hands frequently.
