Gympie Council still here to help Gympie businesses doing it tough because of COVID

The council’s CEO Shane Gray said this week the organisation had recently signed up to be a Small Business Friendly Council, as part of ongoing efforts to provide relief for Gympie region business owners doing it tough due to lingering effects of the pandemic.

The Gympie Cinema is just one local business to go through well-documented economic hardships since the COVID pandemic set in.

The Gympie Regional Council has affirmed it remains committed to helping local small businesses out of the COVID-19 quagmire as economic struggles are tipped to stick around “for some time”.

The council’s CEO Shane Gray said this week the organisation had recently signed up to be a Small Business Friendly Council, as part of ongoing efforts to provide relief for Gympie region business owners doing it tough due to lingering effects of the pandemic.

Local vendors such as the Gympie Cinemas have endured well-documented struggles to get paying customers through its doors since the pandemic struck, a situation not helped by the discontinuation of Federal Government JobKeeper payments at the end of March.

Shane Gray, Gympie Regional Council CEO

But Mr Gray said the council remained committed to finding workarounds to local businesses still facing economic hardships.

“Obviously the economic effects of COVID-19 will impact our region’s economy for some time,” Mr Gray said.

“Council worked with and supported both business and residents in numerous ways during the height of the pandemic, and has recently signed as a Small Business Friendly Council.

“Council understands COVID-19 has impacted individual businesses. We encourage anyone to call us on 1300 307 800 to discuss what options are available to them.”

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The State Government introduced the Small Business Friendly Council initiative to “recognise and support local councils in Queensland that are actively supporting small businesses in their area and helping small businesses to recover and build resilience following disasters and economic challenges”.

Among the benefits of joining the initiative for councils is the “access (to) tools and resources to assist councils with small business resilience and recovery”.