Decisions made on vaccine passes for Council facilities

Published: 2 December 2021

Last Updated: 9 December 2021

Several Napier City Council facilities will operate using My Vaccine Passes from Friday 3 December, while others will remain open to all, based on capacity requirements set out under the Orange traffic light setting.

Council has undertaken a detailed risk assessment on all facilities to enable decisions to be made that are appropriate for each venue.

Napier City Council Chief Executive Dr Steph Rotarangi says while there are multiple issues to consider, the primary considerations were community and staff safety, as well as whether the facility could legally operate without requiring My Vaccine Passes.

“Many of our facilities, such as the Municipal Theatre or War Memorial Centre, wouldn’t be able to operate under Orange without requiring customers to be vaccinated.”

“Our decisions strike a balance between practicality and ensuring we can provide public good services to the entire Napier community,” says Dr Rotarangi.

Some facilities offer services that cannot operate without requiring the My Vaccine Pass, such as cafes. Other facilities are essential for ratepayers and provide a high degree of public good, so these will not require vaccine passes. 

“We don’t want to exclude members of the community from accessing these services. That said, we may need to move swiftly and change our decisions if required,” says Dr Rotarangi.

Council facilities that will require customers to present a My Vaccine Pass at all times from 3 December:

• Napier War Memorial Conference Centre
• Napier Municipal theatre
• Century Theatre
• National Aquarium of New Zealand
• Kennedy Park Resort (from 20^th December)
• Gym at Napier Aquatic Centre (not the Aquatic Centre itself)

Some facilities will operate without the My Vaccine Pass, instead using capacity limits and other rules set out for Orange. However, they will require customers to present a My Vaccine Pass for events onlyfrom 3 December. These facilities are:

• Bay Skate 
• McLean Park
• All halls 

The following Council facilities will notrequire customers to present a My Vaccine Pass at this time. Given that legislation is constantly being reviewed and updated, decisions about these facilities might need to change in future:

• Napier City Council Customer Service Centre. (Meetings with duty planners and building officers will resume. All meetings onsite will have 1m distancing with the option of online attendance.)
• MTG Hawke’s Bay
• Napier Library 
• Taradale Library 
• The Faraday Centre
• Napier iSite 
• Par2 Mini Golf
• Napier Aquatic Centre (excluding the gym)

Additionally, Napier City Council is currently consulting with its employees on its Draft Vaccination Policy. The draft policy proposes that to work on Napier City Council premises or to work on behalf of the Council in public, employees must be fully vaccinated by 17^th January 2022. A policy for visitors and contractors will be considered after the policy for employees is decided upon.

Back to News Archive