Mayor's Christmas communication

Mayor Ben Shaw in his video message on Facebook.

THIS is the text of a video Christmas message from Derwent Valley mayor Ben Shaw that was posted on the council's Facebook page earlier today.

"G'day everybody, Ben Shaw here, the new mayor of the Derwent Valley Council and welcome to our first edition of the mayor's monthly message. This message is going to be brought to you at least once a month throughout my term on council and really it's a communication tool.

"We've heard the community's concerns. We understand that the council hasn't really communicated well enough for a long period of time. So we'll use this message for the next four years and at least every month we'll actually be bringing some decisions of council, we'll actually go around the community, we'll actually go through and introduce you to some of the staff that work at council and really I guess give you an understanding of how council work and and what certain people in the organisation do, as well as bringing you some of the really important decisions of council.

"And I'll try and explain those decisions to council in an easy way so you can understand what's going on, so you don't have to read through all the agendas and find out information in other means or hear it from chit chat around the street. This is going to be an ongoing thing and I look forward to communicating with you all through the next four years.

"At last month's meeting which was last week, we actually adopted a new communication strategy. This will actually help us engage a lot better with the community. So internally we'll actually be able to engage. We've already set up a Facebook page which everybody is actually quite happy with at the moment.

"Hopefully in the future we'll look at how we can actually engage and interact with the community as well on that but we've got a lot of things in the communication strategy which should help I guess relay the messages from from council on what we're doing and make it a lot more transparent and just just let the community understand a lot more of what we're actually doing.

"Last month you would have seen that the council actually adopted a new community strategic plan - Our Valley 2030. This is going to be our guiding document. This is going to be the document that council really relies on in terms of when we make our decisions. So all of our critical decisions - and all of our decisions in fact that come through council - will be referenced back to this document.

"This document is your voice and your thinking for the next 12 years. So this is this is what you've told us you want the community to look like in 2030. So everything that we do from now on, this should be a guiding document. This should be our referencing document that we actually work to. So this is a really really important document that myself and all of our councillors and all the staff will actually be working to. So thank you for your input into the community strategic plan, Our Valley 2030, it will be a very strong document moving forward. So thank you very much.

"We will bring you some more of these updates over every month, over the next four years of my term but essentially this is the first one, this is the greeting message to let you know what this message is about and why we're doing it. And essentially it's just so we can communicate better to our community and let you know what's going.

"Today we're actually in the Santa's House [in the Courthouse in Circle St, New Norfolk]. Santa's House was actually set up by the New Norfolk Christmas group, a fantastic volunteer organisation or a volunteer group who has done all this fantastic work just to bring some Christmas cheer into the into the heart of New Norfolk. You would have also seen down the street there's some Christmas banners, there's also some some Christmas paraphernalia on the poles, so that's all done by the Christmas Group.

"From 10:00 'til 4:00 every day Santa will actually be in here. So no I'm not Santa, yes I do look a little bit like Santa here sitting up on Santa's chair, but there will be real Santa here from 10:00 'til 4:00  each day. So bring your kids along, bring in your pets, and bring the family members, bring your camera or your phone and come and have a free photo with Santa Claus, have a catch up. There's also some lollies that Santa will hand out. And Santa is also walking up and down the street periodically through the day up until Christmas Eve except on Sunday.

"Essentially that's it for me for this month, but we will have more content moving forward. We'll be doing things like going out to footy and cricket matches, having a bit of a catch up with the community down the street, we'll also be introducing you to a few staff members are working council, outside, inside, letting you know exactly what their role is and what they do for the community.

Mayor Ben Shaw, left, general manager Greg Winton, right,
and some of the council staff wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

"So I guess, really just letting you into the world of council because a lot of people don't know a lot about what council do. So that's what we're going to try and do these video messages each month.  So that's it for me for 2018 and we'll be back in January. But from myself and from all of the new councillor group we wish you a merry Christmas, a happy and safe new year and hopefully councillors can just get on with the job in January and make the community the best community that we can."

The video concluded with a message from general manager Greg Winton advising that the council offices will close at noon on December 21, and re-open on January 2.

Derwent Valley Council Christmas and New Year arrangements

• Council Chambers and Depot: Closed from noon on Friday, December 21, re-opening Wednesday, January 2. 
• Garbage and recycling collection will operate as normal with the exception of Christmas Day, which will be collected on Sunday, December 23.
• National Park Waste Transfer Station will operate as normal.
• New Norfolk Landfill Site (Peppermint Hill) will be closed from 11am on Friday, December 21; open on December 22, 23 and 24 (normal hours), closed Christmas Day and re-opening on Wednesday, 26 (normal hours).
• Swimming pools are closed on Christmas Day 
• Valley Children’s Centre will be closed on December 21 and re-opening January 2.
• The Derwent Valley Council emergency phone number is 6261 8500 (all hours).