{"id":5665,"date":"2020-03-27T01:09:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T01:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=5665"},"modified":"2020-03-27T01:09:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T01:09:47","slug":"park-and-ride-on-hold-and-blackbutt-reserve-closed-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/03\/27\/park-and-ride-on-hold-and-blackbutt-reserve-closed-to-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Park and Ride on hold and Blackbutt Reserve closed to the public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>City of Newcastle will suspend\u00a0its\u00a0commuter\u00a0bus Park and Ride\u00a0service\u00a0from Monday in response to a decline in\u00a0patronage\u00a0of\u00a0more than 85 per cent\u00a0since COVID-19 began affecting the Hunter.<br \/>\nPatronage of the commuter service has dropped significantly over the past month, with buses running close to empty to and from the city following the shutdown of non-essential services and many businesses implementing work-from-home arrangements.<br \/>\nAll registered Park and Ride users will receive notifications\u00a0of the change via message to their registered mobile phone number and email address.<br \/>\nBlackbutt Reserve\u00a0has\u00a0also been closed to the public in line with the Public Health Order of 25 March limiting all non-essential services. This follows last week\u2019s suspension of wildlife shows and other entertainment and services that required close contact between members of the public and Blackbutt staff.<br \/>\nThe\u00a0closure\u00a0of Blackbutt has become more urgent with staff continuing to locate large public gatherings\u00a0in the sheltered\u00a0areas despite pleas from the Federal and State Governments\u00a0for the community to practise social distancing.<br \/>\nWhile\u00a0public access is\u00a0now\u00a0restricted, City staff\u00a0will continue\u00a0to tend to Blackbutt Reserve and care for the animals on site as per usual.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Public-signage.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/News\/Latest-News\/Park-and-Ride-on-hold-and-Blackbutt-Reserve-closed\/Public-signage.jpg.aspx\" alt=\"Public-signage.jpg\" \/>City of Newcastle has\u00a0also\u00a0closed community halls\u00a0until further notice,\u00a0following Wednesday\u2019s Federal Government directive\u00a0to close all community facilities.<br \/>\nWhile non-essential services have ceased at these facilities, services\u00a0such as mental health,\u00a0childcare\u00a0and crisis support\u00a0continue under strict social-distancing practises\u00a0and\u00a0current health advice.<br \/>\nCity\u00a0of Newcastle\u00a0staff are reviewing\u00a0the\u00a0capacity of these sites\u00a0to become available\u00a0for local emergency facilities and other essential services if required.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, the City\u00a0is\u00a0installing\u00a0signage across open space areas including beaches, baths and\u00a0parks\u00a0to encourage visitors to practise safe social distancing and refrain from gathering in groups in line with the Public Health Order.<br \/>\nFor\u202ffurther information on the City\u2019s response to COVID-19, please see\u202f\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/COVID-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/COVID-19<\/u><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/COVID-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>\u00a0\u202f<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>City of Newcastle will suspend\u00a0its\u00a0commuter\u00a0bus Park and Ride\u00a0service\u00a0from Monday in response to a decline in\u00a0patronage\u00a0of\u00a0more than 85 per cent\u00a0since COVID-19 began affecting the Hunter. Patronage of the commuter service has dropped significantly over the past month, with buses running close to empty to and from the city following the shutdown of non-essential services and many &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/03\/27\/park-and-ride-on-hold-and-blackbutt-reserve-closed-to-the-public\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Park and Ride on hold and Blackbutt Reserve closed to the public&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}