Pressure mounts over plan to ditch mobile library
Pressure is piling on to Christchurch’s civic leaders to retain a much-loved and needed mobile library service.
Several community groups have also expressed their concern at a Christchurch City Council plan to ditch a rates remission for not-for-profit organisations with high cash balances.
Removing the mobile library service would cut off an entire generation of people who love reading, Maegan Thompson told city councillors yesterday.
The council is proposing to scrap the $91,000 a year mobile library service as part of its next 10-year budget, the long-term plan (LTP).
The plan has upset several people who have written submissions to the council pleading with it to continue the service. Speaking to her submission during an LTP hearing, Thompson said cancelling the service would cause huge damage to elderly residents.
Thompson, who is the activities’ manager at the Burlington Retirement Village in Prestons in north Christchurch, said more than 30 residents used the van during the 30 minutes it visited the village each week.
The residents were not able to drive themselves to a library.
‘‘I truly believe it would be unjust to remove this service not only for the older adults of our community but for all people.’’
The mobile library van – a donated diesel Mercedes Sprint due for replacement in 2022 – visited rest homes, social housing and areas a long distance from local libraries.
Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel said the bus was coming to the end of its life and the council was looking at other ways the service could be delivered.
Friends of Christchurch Libraries president Christine Baxter asked the council if it was fully aware of the important role the library service played in the lives of residents or how attached they were to it.
‘‘We just wonder if you really have seriously considered the impact this will have on some of the community’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable people. ‘‘To disband the service might seem to them that you don’t care about them.’’
Baxter, a former librarian, told the council a visit to the mobile library service was a bright spot in the week for many.
She was also against other cuts to library services, which included closing earlier for many libraries.
Residents’ surveys regularly showed a 95 per cent satisfaction rate with the library service, Baxter said.
Age Concern Canterbury chief executive Simon Templeton said the organisation did not support the closure of the mobile library service. Data supplied to Age Concern by the council showed 1200 books were taken out each month in 2020-21, which included the lockdown period when the bus did not operate.
The council was not able to provide a breakdown of the ages, but Templeton said he understood many of them were over 65.
During the next two weeks, 320 residents and organisations will speak to the council about its proposed 10-year budget.
About 2300 people and organisations had their say on the LTP by writing submissions.