{"id":7544,"date":"2020-08-03T16:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=7544"},"modified":"2020-08-03T16:00:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T16:00:28","slug":"councils-recognised-during-local-government-week-for-stepping-up-to-the-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/08\/03\/councils-recognised-during-local-government-week-for-stepping-up-to-the-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"COUNCILS RECOGNISED DURING LOCAL GOVERNMENT WEEK FOR STEPPING UP TO THE CHALLENGE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Local Government Week is a time to acknowledge the significant role councils are playing to support communities across the State to recover from the drought, bushfires and COVID-19, Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock said today.<br \/>\n\u201cOur communities are facing some of the most difficult times in the modern era and our local councils have once again stepped up to the challenge,\u201d Mrs Hancock said.<br \/>\n\u201cDuring the bushfire crisis, local councils operated evacuation centres, co-ordinated the distribution of donated goods and services, carried out emergency bushfire response works, and repaired and rebuilt community infrastructure.<br \/>\n\u201cCouncils have also been vital in responding to COVID-19, retraining and redeploying staff to minimise job losses and maintaining essential community facilities and services in the face of significant restrictions and financial distress.<br \/>\n\u201cThey have also provided financial relief for residents and businesses by deferring rates, providing rate rebates, waiving fees and interest, reducing rents, offering grants and making donations.<br \/>\n\u201cI urge everybody to take a moment during Local Government Week to recognise the critical role your local council is playing to support your community during these trying times.\u201d<br \/>\nThe theme of Local Government Week this year is\u00a0<em>Councils Do<\/em>, highlighting the significant work councils do in their communities and the wide variety of services they provide including libraries, roads, waste collection, footpaths, parks, pools and animal shelters.<br \/>\nLocal Government Week 2020 runs from August 3-9. The highlight of celebrations is the presentation of the Local Government Week Awards on August 6 to recognise the best and brightest in NSW councils.<br \/>\nThe Office of Local Government has published council success stories on its\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olg.nsw.gov.au\/programs-and-initiatives\/olg-assists-councils-to-manage-covid-19\/council-success-stories\/\">website<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to recognise the efforts of the local government sector during the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Local Government Week is a time to acknowledge the significant role councils are playing to support communities across the State to recover from the drought, bushfires and COVID-19, Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock said today. \u201cOur communities are facing some of the most difficult times in the modern era and our local councils have &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/08\/03\/councils-recognised-during-local-government-week-for-stepping-up-to-the-challenge\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;COUNCILS RECOGNISED DURING LOCAL GOVERNMENT WEEK FOR STEPPING UP TO THE CHALLENGE&#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":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7544","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=7544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}