In January 2020, the City of Casey announced its decision to transition the children's road safety program currently delivered at the Casey Safety Village into an outreach program going directly into local schools from 2021.
The plan was to continue the operations of the Casey Safety Village throughout 2020, and then undertake its closure at the end of the 2020 school year.
As a direct result of the lockdown measures currently in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the restriction around schools resuming face-to-face classes, resulting in external school excursions also being restricted, Council has made the decision to permanently close the Casey Safety Village, effective immediately.
All remaining bookings for 2020 have been cancelled and schools, kindergartens and families affected have been contacted.
City of Casey CEO Glenn Patterson said that whilst January was not that long ago, so much of the world has changed since then due to the effects of COVID-19. The health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and of the community are our number one priority.
"It was always our intention to continue running the program and honour the existing bookings that had already been made, but unfortunately like many services and events, COVID-19 has changed those plans", said Mr Patterson.
"Council remains committed to improving road safety for children, and resources will be redirected to developing a new outreach program during 2020 for commencement in Term 1, 2021. We will be in contact with schools within the municipality to inform them of the new opportunities that will be available for their students."
The decision to close the Casey Safety Village was resolved at the Council Meeting on 3 December 2019 following a service review of the program.
