The community spoke AND the South Wairarapa District Council responded – partly.
After weeks of anguish over reduced and puzzling library open and closed hours, “elected members (said a statement from council) agreed that the new library hours did not meet community expectations so the service offerings are to be reviewed by November 2023.”
“A revised interim opening hours schedule is to be implemented that better meets the community’s expectations.”
This partial backdown, notified on August 9, came after the results of residents’ perceptions/ratings of the council showed the highest-rated service was the three libraries, with 85% satisfaction.
That high rating by citizens using the library services was the same as the previous year.
Libraries were used by 65% of respondents to the wide-ranging survey, while council-maintained sports fields and playgrounds were used by 49% and 46% of respondents respectively. They were given an 80% satisfaction rating, second highest after the libraries.
A council statement advising of the hours changes noted that “opening on a Saturday was important to many of those who provided feedback” (some 400 people).
Saturday morning will see all three open till a formal review of library services has been done, led by the Council CEO.
Meantime, each library will be closed for one mid-week day.
Last month, more than 140 submitters added their voices to the council’s request for formal feedback and few of the responses offered full or even partial support for the closure plans.
At least another 150 mostly negative reactions were noted on social media.
Four formal submissions supported the reduction of funding and library hours.
Most condemned the library cuts as anti-learning, anti-youth and even disruptive of a key community resource which has seen its patronage increase by 30 percent in recent years, according to survey results.
One question was whether councillors misread the room after they appeared to get nearly 50 percent support in a survey for a plan to cut $165,000 from the libraries’ budget, by reducing part-time staff numbers at all three centres.
The partial backtrack together with an urgent review of the library and its services, suggests a significant misread of the public mood.
The review team has been tasked to report back its “thorough review” findings by November.
