Council services on Catastrophic and Extreme fire danger days

The CFA has declared that Monday (27 January) will be an Extreme Fire Danger Rating for our area

As a result, the following service closures and changes will be in place on Monday:

• Anglesea Landfill will open 5am-10am, Anglesea Transfer Station will open 9-10am and Anglesea Re-sale Shed will be closed.  Lorne and Winchelsea Transfer Stations will be closed.
• Residential kerbside bin collections in Lorne and Deans Marsh will start at 5am and finish by 10am. Residents are advised to place their bins out on Sunday evening.

• Public street litter bins in high risk areas (outside Torquay and Winchelsea) will be collected before 10am. A second litter bin service may take place after 6pm if the expected cool change arrives in the afternoon. No changes to public litter bin collections in Torquay and Winchelsea with two collections planned in the morning and afternoon.
• Public toilet cleaning in the townships of Winchelsea and Torquay will continue as per the summer holiday cleaning schedule. All other public toilets outside of these two locations will have cleaning operate until 10am.  A later cleaning service may be performed if safe to do so in high risk areas after 6pm if the expected cool change arrives.

• Lorne and Anglesea visitor information centres will be closed, with services accessible from the Torquay Visitor Information Centre.

 

Background information

In the interests of community and employee safety, there will be short-term facilities closures and disruptions to Council services during high-risk fire days.

On days rated by the Country Fire Authority (CFA) as having ‘Extreme’ or ‘Catastrophic’ fire danger, our priority is to protect the safety of employees and the community.

Council employees and contractors will not work or travel in fire risk zones at the highest risk times.

Services and facilities in high bushfire risk areas (such as Lorne, Aireys Inlet, Anglesea and parts of Jan Juc) and high grassfire risk areas (such as the outer areas of Winchelsea and surrounds), will be impacted on Extreme fire risk days.

Impacts will extend to outdoor facilities in Torquay and other lower risk urban areas on Catastrophic fire risk days.

Depending on their location and the CFA fire danger rating, the following facilities may experience unscheduled short-term closures:

• waste transfer stations;
• Lorne, Anglesea and Winchelsea Visitor Information Centres;
• kindergartens and maternal and child health services;
• sport facilities and recreation reserves;
• Council-owned and/or managed community facilities.

Kerbside bin collections and emptying of public bins on Council land may be paused depending on fire rating and location, with collections starting earlier to avoid the highest risk times and catch-up collections scheduled as soon as possible.

Council-run events and events on Council land may be cancelled or re-scheduled, while community bus hire bookings could be canceled.

We will notify the community as soon as we can when closures or disruptions need to happen, including contacting users directly where possible.

We encourage you to follow us on social media for updates as soon as they’re available.