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THE City of Greater Bendigo has been inundated with letters, phone calls and emails following its provisional decision to withdraw from Home and Community Care in February.
A community-circulated petition for council keeping the HACC services and saving the jobs of 165 employees has also attracted more than 2500 signatures, figures provided by the City reveal.
Rod Flavell, the City's manager of aged and disability services, said there had been "strong interest in the issue", with a lot of comments made about the quality of the current council-based service.
He said somewhere between 130 and 140 pieces of correspondence had been received so far during the public consultation stage.
"People have been very constructive around their feedback about quality," he said.
"Council has been working pretty hard on sifting through and considering all the feedback it's received."
Mr Flavell said the date for council to vote on the issue had been extended to May 6 to give it more time to consult with staff and the Australian Services Union.
"Council has been looking at issues of how the service could be done better," he said.
"The union did ask for extra time to put in an extra submission, and that's what they're looking at."
Mr Flavell said he wanted to reassure the community that should council withdraw, HACC services would still continue via a different provider.
"We do understand the uncertainty surrounding council's provisional decision may be upsetting to some people," he said.
"If council does exit the service, the Department of Health and Human Services' regional office would then tender the service to other providers."
While council will not get a say in which provider the department would choose, Mr Flavell said there were reputable not-for profit providers in Greater Bendigo that would fit the bill.
"We understand the change would bring a degree of apprehension, but the council’s very much across what would happen," he said.
"Council is very aware the transition would need to be done smoothly and for there to be no gaps in service."
