Musicians in the Park will return on Friday, April 8. The initiative has been popular over the past couple of years and is a great way to activate our city centre and support local artists.

Local band The Safety of Life at Sea will play from 5.30pm to 8pm in Kings Parade. Bring your friends and family and grab something to eat from one of the surrounding businesses and enjoy the evening in the park.

On Saturday, April 9, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs will screen in Kings Parade.

It's the perfect family event to kick-off the school holidays. Live music will play from 4pm and the movie will commence at 6pm.

Chase the Rainbow is a colour run to celebrate Youth Week. The event will be held on Sunday, April 10, with the run starting at 10am. There will also be live music, a Lions Club sausage sizzle, a coffee van and an ice-cream truck.

For those after something different, the Heritage Trades Trail will be on from April 9-10.

More than 100 artisans will demonstrate rare and traditional trades at the Ag Station at CSU and Bathurst Showground.

Crafts such as blacksmithing, saddlery, dry stone walling, whipcracking and making, glass artistry and more will be on display.

For more information on any of these events, visit www.bathurst.nsw.gov.au

Welcome lunch

MORE than 50 families attended the Welcome to Bathurst lunch last Sunday.

It was a lovely opportunity to meet with our new residents and learn why they chose to call our city home.

I spoke with families and individuals from India, Nepal, Mudgee, Campbelltown, Coffs Harbour and other locations.

They moved to our city for a variety of reasons, including lifestyle, work and the services and facilities that Bathurst offers.

NRL in Bathurst

WHAT a fantastic turnout we had for the NRL last weekend.

We exceeded our expectations with a crowd of 11,253 viewing the game as the Penrith Panthers took on the Newcastle Knights at Carrington Park.

Events such as this demonstrate our city's first-class facilities and resources.

The Gold Crown Carnival and the Historic Motocross event at Mount Panorama were also on last weekend.

These events combined have provided our economy with a significant boost and prove that Bathurst is a destination for events.

FORGETTING or losing vehicle registration paperwork is now a thing of the past thanks to the NSW Government launching a fully digitised, paperless rego service.

The new Digital Vehicle Registration service is a one-stop shop for drivers, offering digital renewal notifications and a Certificate of Registration all in one place.

Through the new service, motorists can opt-in to get electronic reminder notices and access their digital Certificate of Registration through their MyServiceNSW Account.

Customers who opt-in will receive reminder notifications six and two weeks before their registration expires and one day after via email, in their MyServiceNSW account and by push notifications in the Service NSW app.

This service has been piloted using more than 1000 vehicles to great success.

Although you can already renew your rego online, this additional option makes life easier for drivers by giving them more information in the palm of their hand.

My message to drivers in our community is simple - give the new service a go and reap the rewards.

The service is optional, meaning customers will continue to receive a paper renewal notice unless they opt-in.

To opt-in to Digital Vehicle Registration, visit www.service.nsw.gov.au

More COVID support

NSW continues to lead the way through the COVID-19 recovery, and we'll continue our record support so that more businesses reopen, jobs are filled and communities are buzzing again.

A raft of temporary regulatory measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have now been made permanent, in a move that will provide $2.4 billion of net economic benefits over the next decade.

Originally set to expire from March 2022, the temporary changes made permanent include:

These changes, combined with the resilience, creativity and determination of our people and businesses, mean that our state will be in a better and stronger position to recover and flourish.

Small businesses hit hardest by the Omicron wave have also been handed a further lifeline, with the Small Business Support Program extended to a new closing date of April 29, 2022.

The financial support package has assisted businesses, workers and the performing arts across NSW with cash flow and to continue trading.

The four-week extension will allow more businesses to apply, and takes into account potential application delays for businesses from flood-affected areas.

The Small Business Support Program provides eligible businesses with a lump sum payment of 20 per cent of weekly payroll with a minimum payment of $500 per week and a maximum payment of $5000 per week.

Businesses with an annual turnover of between $75,000 and $50 million that experienced a decline in turnover of at least 40 per cent in January 2022 and the start of February 2022 are eligible.

For more information, please visit nsw.gov.au/.