If you’re planning a big weekend in the garden, then you’ll be able to take all your green waste to the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park, which is open every day over Labour weekend and the public holiday.

Or maybe you have plans to visit the Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum and check out the life and times of one of Ashburton’s earliest female photographers, Bobbie Barwell.

Bobbie’s photographs captured life in Ashburton in the 1930s and 1940s and she was a woman not confined by the social constructs of her time.

Her passion for the outdoors shines through in her photographs, and the exhibition also includes photographic techniques, equipment and practices in the era of Barwell Studios.

The gallery and museum, and EA Networks Centre, will also be open every day over Labour weekend, though the public holiday on Monday 24 October will see temporary changes to some other Council services and facilities.

Rubbish and recycling

There is no change to kerbside rubbish and recycling collections and Monday’s collection will take place as usual, with residents to have their wheelie bins out by 7.30am. Remember to use your windstrap, whether it's windy or not.

Resource Recovery Parks

The Ashburton Resource Recovery Park will be open Saturday from 9am-6pm, Sunday from 9am-5pm, and Monday from 8am until 6pm.

The Methven green waste dropoff will be open Sunday from 12pm until 4pm.

The Rakaia Resource Recovery Park will be open on Saturday from 9am-3pm, and closed on Monday.

EA Networks Centre

Swim, put up some hoops or work out in the gym every day of the long weekend as the EA Networks Centre will be open Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The gym will be open Saturday and Sunday from 7am until 6pm, and on Monday from 10am-5pm.

The pool will be open Saturday and Sunday from 7am until 5pm, and from 10am-5pm on Monday.

The stadium will be open Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 7pm, and from 10am until 5pm on Monday.

Mt Hutt Memorial Hall

The Mt Hutt Memorial Hall at Methven will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10am until 4pm, and from 10am until 2pm on Monday.

Ashburton Public Library

The Ashburton Public Library will be open Saturday 10am-1pm, Sunday 1pm-4pm and closed Monday.

Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum

The Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum will be open 10am-4pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The Bobbie Barwell exhibition will run until 18 December and if you are visiting to see her photographs, then you should also check out The Wind of the Homeland, paintings by renowned Canterbury artist Henry Lowen-Smith.

Administration building

Council’s administration building on Baring Square West will be closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday, re-opening on Tuesday at 8.30am. If you have a problem or urgently need to contact us, then the afterhours/24 hours-a-day service will be operating - please phone 03 307 7700.

Emails, Snap Send Solves and website requests will be cleared Tuesday morning.

Public toilets around the district will be open as usual during the long weekend.

All facilities will return to normal hours on Tuesday 25 October.