Planning to bury your nose in a good book this summer? Or is lounging on the beach more your thing? Perhaps you have some adventures planned with your pooch?

Whether you’re a bookworm, a sun-seeker, a dog walker, or all three, we want your summer in the Western Bay to be as relaxing as possible.

Which is why we’ve put together a dedicated webpage where you can find all the information you need about our essential services over the holiday period.

From opening hours and what days to put your bins out, to freedom camping and where you can walk you dog, it’s your go-to guide.

Here are the essentials…

Library and service centres

If you want to stock up on some summer reads or sort out any end of year admin before the break, our libraries and services centres are open until midday on Friday 20 December (Barkes Corner, Katikati, Te Puke, Ōmokoroa and Waihī Beach). If you don’t make it in before then, don’t worry, we won’t be closed for long. Our regular hours will resume from Monday 6 January.

And remember, you can always download e-books via our library website if you find yourself short of a good read – libraries.westernbay.govt.nz.

Kerbside rubbish and recycling collections

During the weeks of Christmas and New Year, if your normal collection day is a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, your bins will be collected a day later than usual.  Please continue to put your bins out for collection by 7am.

• If your bin day is Monday or Tuesday - put your bins out as per usual.
• If your bin day is Wednesday or Thursday or Friday - put your bins out one day later than usual.

For Waihī Beach, Bowentown and Athenree townships, there will be extra collections from Saturday 28 December to Friday 31 January to help with the huge influx of visitors over summer:

• On Saturday 28 December we’ll collect rubbish, food scraps and glass
• Every Monday - from Monday 30 December until Monday 27 January we’ll empty all bins – rubbish, recycling, glass crate and food scraps
• On Saturday 4 January we’ll collect rubbish and food scraps only
• Every Friday - from Friday 10 January until Friday 31 January we’ll collect rubbish and food scraps only

At Pukehina Beach, your normal collection days on Friday 27 December and Friday 3 January will be one day later, on Saturday 28 December and Saturday 4 January. And if you put your glass crate out on Saturday 28 December, we’ll collect your extra empties.

To keep track of what bins to put out and when, you can also download the Antenno app to receive reminders straight to your phone the day before.

If you’ve got a holiday rental, please make sure to let visitors know about pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) tags, where to purchase them and how to attach them correctly through both loops to the red lid rubbish bin. Check our Kerbside Collective website for details.

For gardening gurus and tidy-uppers, summer hours for recycling and greenwaste centres can be found here.

Freedom camping

Did you know we have 45 places you can freedom camp in the Western Bay? There are some stunning spots! To see them all and find out more about each place, check out our interactive map.

We will have early morning and nightly patrols at most of our reserves to make sure everyone is playing by the rules. If you’re not sure what the ‘rules’ are or need more information, visit our Freedom Camping webpage.

And keep an eye out for our friendly Summer Ambassadors, who will be visiting freedom camping spots, parking areas and beaches to make sure everyone is enjoying their stay.

Paperwork

Applications for building consents, resource consents, code of compliance certificates submitted on or after Friday 20 December may not begin to be processed until after Friday 10 January (this period is excluded from the 20-working-day statutory timeframe). There will also be a delay in processing digital property file orders during this time.

Walking your dog

If you’re walking your pooch over summer, for the safety of people and wildlife, remember dogs are allowed in some places and not others.

The usual rules apply — keep your dog on a leash in the main town centre areas of Te Puke, Katikati and Waihī Beach, take a plastic bag with you to clean up after your dog and no dogs on scenic reserves or playgrounds.

There are also a few summer dog walking rules for the Waihī Beach area:

• Walking dogs on the main beach is restricted to early mornings and evenings – dogs are not allowed on the main beach from Friday 20 December to Friday 7 February, between 9am and 7pm
• Dogs can be exercised any time at Bowentown Beach, roughly between Albacore Avenue and Plom Road (you must carry a leash)
• Due to birds nesting, dogs must be on a leash until March when exercised at Island View Reserve

Alcohol bans

If you didn’t already know, there are year-round 24/7 alcohol bans in our main urban areas – Katikati, Waihī Beach and Te Puke. This means you can’t consume alcohol in public within these areas.

More info

For more useful information, including walking and cycle trails, summer events, fire permits, water quality, swimming pools and noise control, pop over to our Summer Information webpage.

And don’t forget - even when our offices are closed, you can still contact us at any time on 0800 926 732 – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mere Kirihimete and happy holidaying from the Council crew.