Tauranga City Councillors have decided not to introduce new charges on the borrowing of adult books from public libraries - instead 'Top Title' loan prices will go up $1.
This means 'Top Title' books will go from $2 to $3 and DVDs from $3 to $4.
See below for video of reaction to the council's decision not to introduce book charges from Kate Clark from Friends of the Library and Raging Readers.
Councillors have also voted to halve the time DVDs can be loaned for and reduced the maximum number of books people can borrow from 99 to 20.
Library staff wanted the number reduced to 40, but councillors felt that was too many and supported Councillor David Stewart's motion for a 20 book maximum.
This will be trialled for six months.
Councillors also changed their minds on an earlier decision to reduce book numbers, and instead will increase stocks slightly, from 2.35 items per head to 2.6 items per head.
The public pressure that led to the change, including about 900 submissions on the issue during public consultation, was referred to by all councillors.
Mayor Stuart Crosby says the process had been a very good one.
David Stewart says he warned councillors not to underestimate the community reaction.
Rick Curach says they all thought the proposal sounded reasonable around the council table, but the community reaction showed they were wrong.
Catherine Stewart says publicity over the $500,000 library charges issue served as a smokescreen while other costs and charges are unopposed.
The council has approved spending $847,000 on the art gallery, which will still not charge for admission, says Catherine.
Hayden Evans carried on the theme saying the council is also spending $10 million on the Mount Hot Pools upgrade, $41 million on the Tauranga Indoor Sports and Exhibition Centre, $500,000 on Priority One and $250,000 on Sport BOP.
Wayne Moultrie says the moment he decided the library charges were bad was when a solo mother of two boys told him she would stop buying bread to pay them.
Click here to read Raging Reader Vanessa Byrnes' response to the council's decision.
1 comment
SELF INTEREST & ARROGANCE
Posted on 06-06-2010 21:14 | By PIED PIPER
There are no Victors from the stoush between the Raging Readers Clique led by Vanessa Byrnes and the Council pointy heads. Why would Councillors Curach and Baker float increased book charges, it was insane and has the look of a smokescreen to hide the bigger rorts. On the other hand, why do the Raging Readers attack only the increased book charges and refuse to look at other ways to save money on what is a library service little used by most people. Why don t they look at after-hours public use of school libraries for example? Nothing of value has come out of this exercise. Neither of the parties address the wider issue of reining in Council spiralling library costs like reducing staff and book numbers? After the dust settled and the obvious decision was made by Council to stop the bleating, rather than rein in ballooning library costs, our spendthrift Council proceeded to allocate a further $600,000 p.a. or 10% increase toward the library annual funding costs. All the protagonists have done is screwed ratepayers and if there is any winner in this waste of time and money, it certainly has not been the long suffering ratepayers who will now pay $7million p.a. for the library service. Nice one, Ms. Byrnes and Cr. Baker, you ve achieved precisely nothing in this bunfight and both show you have nothing constructive to offer us on how to stop Council spending.
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