Waikato District Council has no firm plans on how it will spend the $300,000 coming from its decision to cut off access to the Hamilton library collection.
When we asked the council if there was any truth in the rumour going around that the cost cut from withdrawing the main library service from 30th September will be used to fund the library proposed for Pokeno, Brian Cathro the council’s Customer Delivery Manager, said, “No” and referred us to a media release on the council website. That statement contains quotes form the Council CEO, Gavin Ion, saying, “We need to be responsible with ratepayer money and we believe it’s important to get the best bang for your buck. ………. The next 12 months will be spent examining all other options available to us to best meet our library user’s needs.”
We also asked the council what was the income from inter Waikato District book reserves and whether any thought had been given to using the library cost cut money to waive the reserve fees. Mr Cathro said that the district wide income from reservations was about $2275.35. The number of reservations for the past year until May were Raglan – 382, Huntly – 305, Tuakau – 136, Te Kauwhata – 116, Ngaruawahia – 252, Meremere – 4 with Total Holds of 1195.
Noticeable in these figures is that the largest number of reserves were made by users of the Raglan Library. Raglan 23’s final question to the council was, “Given the tiny overall cost of reservation for WDC books. ie. About $2275, and given that ratepayers and residents no longer have access to the Hamilton collection, has any consideration been given to using the cost cut money in eliminating the reservation fee for all Waikato residents so they have access to the entire Waikato District catalogue?
A council spokesperson said, “Consideration hasn’t been given to that at this point. I have passed the comment on to Libraries management.”
So these responses confirm that Waikato District Council has no firm plans on how it will spend the $300,000 coming from its decision to cut off access to the Hamilton library collection.