This month is Mental Health Month. Your Council has many events planned to help the community 'Tune In' to their mental health, social and emotional wellbeing. Can I encourage you to jump onto the website and find activities or webinars that might help you or someone you know.  

Last weekend we got a taste of what summer is going to present this year - lots of locals and visitors hitting our beaches to cool off under strange but real COVID -19 conditions. Our lifeguards and the police were out counting and talking to people, and I'm pleased to say that pretty much everyone stuck to the rules. As such, we didn't have to close any beaches due to capacity problems. Thank you for playing your part. 

Predicting the bigger crowds, Council staff arranged additional bins, collections and cleaning at hotspots. And boy were they used - we shifted an unprecedented 39 tonnes of garbage over that weekend, amounting to 15 more tonnes of waste at beaches and public places, compared to the same holiday weekend last year. 

Council will continue to roster extra teams and services on and be proactive in this space. Like you, we don't want backed-up litter bins spoiling our beaches and parks. 

And if you were out enjoying the fantastic weather last weekend and missed the Manly Jazz Online, you can still tune in and enjoy recordings of some 35 bands via our website. 

Have a great weekend.  

This week I joined the NSW Premier to launch the state government’s COVID summer safety plan which aligns nicely with the summer action plan we released last week for the Northern Beaches.

It is great that we are all on the same page with our intention to keep beaches, parks and other public spaces open through the summer. Importantly, empowering our community to play their part.

On our part we’ll be looking at increased cleansing, beach safety marshals, and additional flagged areas to help disperse people across beaches. Signage and an escalating response should our public spaces reach capacity is also a part of the plan.

Empowering our community means we are relying on you to do your bit. People in outdoor spaces like the beach are being asked to be in groups of less than 20, and be a towel length apart (1.5m) from other groups. That’s not much to ask, and who wants to be any closer on a hot day anyway? Also, if you do get to the beach or park and it looks really busy, maybe consider going elsewhere. Or try early morning or late afternoon when we know there are less people about. Just a thought.

We all love summer on the Northern Beaches so please work with us to keep our favourite spaces open for all to enjoy. Oh, and remember, the Lifeguards and the Lifesavers focus needs to on the water to keep us safe. So let’s all play our part to keep the beaches open.  

Finally, if you are still looking for something to keep the kids entertained in the holidays, we still have a few spaces available in our vacation care programs.

Have a great weekend

In case you missed it we recently won grant funding for an idea to close some streets to traffic to support our businesses and provide more public space for our community.

Cafes and other businesses have restricted numbers indoors thanks to COVID-19 so the plan is to provide more space for them outside and extend the pedestrian traffic onto the road. Over the next few months selected streets in Mona Vale, Newport and Dee Why will see some weekend street closures to provide this opportunity.

We’re also looking at closing Tania Park to traffic for limited periods on Sundays to allow more recreational use of this great space. Stay tuned for dates and more details.

You don’t have to be a history buff to love looking at old photos of our area and hearing from the people who lived and worked here at another time.

Mona Vale’s football team from the 1950s, a paddle steamer at Manly Wharf, the outfits on Palm Beach in the 1930s or Dee Why Post Office circa 1915, plus over 27,000 other historical photos, oral histories, maps and even theatre programs can be found on our new online History Hub.

Get exploring! We’d also love to hear from you if you have information to add to any of the material you find on the site or would like to donate to our collection.

Have a great weekend.

Michael Regan

It’s been a pretty rough year for our local business community and many have had to change their whole way of operating within a very short time just to keep the doors open. 

We’ve been sharing some of their inspiring stories as part of our Business Community Unite program. We’ve seen how Balgowlah’s Cheese on Wheels joined other market stallholders to create an online portal to sell their produce. Vale Plastics in Brookie who pivoted to manufacture hygiene screens to protect those serving the public across Australia. Jaki from Literacy Circle in Killarney Heights adapted her whole teaching approach so she could continue to support her students. And this week Bobbi from The Pottery Café in Collaroy describes how she started a Curry Club and take home pottery kits.

These are great stories of success and examples of our innovative, creative and resilient business community. Stay tuned, next week we’ll learn how Newport Yoga Centre moved classes online and delivered wellness packages to their customers. 

You too can help our local economy - shop local, dine out or order in, or just be a tourist in your own area and/or book a local experience. And with Father’s Day only a week away, it’s a great time to think about how you can support our local employers. 

Have a great weekend.

Michael Regan