Cr Pamela Sutton-Legaud
The last few weeks have been particularly tough for our Hobsons Bay community. Newport and Altona North have been hit hard by a COVID-19 outbreak with more than 191 active cases, dozens of exposure sites and hundreds of Hobsons Bay households in isolation. Despite this, it has been heart-warming to see so many different facets of our community working together to spread the COVID-Safe message, including early testing, vaccination and support services for those in isolation through the Hobsons Bay Community has Heart Community Connector program.
One such endeavour is the partnership between Council, the Department of Health and the Altona North Respiratory Clinic to create a vaccine surge centre at the Altona Badminton Centre, next to BayFit. The first session on Saturday, September 4 booked out within 30 minutes. Dates for future sessions will continue to be posted on council’s social media. The vaccine surge centre complements another great partnership between the Australian Islamic Centre and Western Health for a temporary pop-up vaccination site with Arabic-speaking doctors and translators at the mosque in Blenheim Road.
On a brighter note, the reopening of playgrounds earlier this month was a highlight for many families in our community and I have some more great news for playground users in the Strand ward. Newport residents can now have their say on the new playground at Digman Reserve. Have your say online or join one of the virtual drop in sessions on Thursday, September 23 or Saturday, October 2. Visit participate.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/digman-reserve to view the concept plan and for more information.
Across in Williamstown, exciting plans have been unveiled for a new adventure playground which will replace the existing wooden structure at Maclean Reserve in Williamstown. You can see the final design at participate.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/macleanreserve. Works will begin in October and will be complete by late 2021 which will give the students at St Mary’s Primary School something exciting to look forward to at the start of the school year!
As the rollout plan to get out of lockdown is announced, I encourage everyone to stay safe and continue to be kind to each other. It’s been hard, however, there is now some light at the end of the tunnel.
