Advocates for a new library in Greerton will be back at Tauranga City Council next week hoping newly elected councillors keep their campaign promises.

Friends of the Library president Kate Clark says in spite of their pre-election promises, councillors balked at committing to the project at the December council meeting.

Friends of the Library president Kate Clark is still determined to get a bigger library for Greerton.

'The people who said they would vote for it have gone back on their word,” says Friends of the Library president Kate Clarke.

'People were voting for them on that basis. The number of Facebook hits I got on them was huge. So that promise they made about Greerton Library, considering it's not just Greerton, it's the southern suburbs one third of the population, should be taken seriously.”

Stuart Crosby and Kelvin Clout are the only two councillors to keep their word. Other councillors who backed the new 900m2 library during the election are Matt Cowley, Bev Edlin, Bill Grainger, Clayton Mitchell, and Steve Morris.

The library was granted a reprieve by an agreement to make no decision until the councillors have done their homework. Staff were to present a Greerton Library Dossier, to councillors for reading over the holidays - containing all explored options and updated costs.

'We are just trying to get it into the Annual Plan, that's what we are trying to do,” says Kate.

'We are scared that it won't even make the Annual Plan.”

Bill Grainger, who was part of the working group that worked through 2013 to solve the library issues, says after the meeting he never supported the total demolition and rebuild of the library, but felt that something could be done with the existing structure.

Even with a 900m2 library built, the Greerton Library will still not be a up to the same standard as the rest of the city, says Kate. It will still fail to meet the council's own requirement of having 2.6 books on the shelves per head of capita.

'If they are not even going to do that why the heck does the southern third of Tauranga not deserve the same library facilities as the rest of Tauranga?” says Kate.

'That's the question I really want the council to answer. What is so wrong with this end of town that we don't even deserve the library facilities.

'Why do the children of this end of town who have to compete on the world stage where they have to compete equally for jobs and things like that, but they have such poor resources in the library that is available to them?”

Friends of The Library wants the public to know some of the numbers being used in the argument have changed, says Kate.

First there's the claimed additional $200,000 a year running costs for the new library.

'In 2010 when we did Raging Readers campaign, we were being told that the rate take for libraries was nine per cent, nine per cent of our rates went to libraries,” says Kate.

'We are now being told that it's only six per cent. So I don't see why 200,000 a year is an issue. If there are 40,000 people using it, that's only $5 a year for the people using it.

'That is not too much and we have been paying rates out here for a long time, 21 years; so that's where Friends of the Library are coming from.”

The current Greerton Library was built when the Greerton Village population was 12,000 people. Census figures show the library now serves a catchment of 40,000 people. Door figures show the ageing, leaking, and possible earthquake hazard has 450-500 people a day using it.

'That's like putting trucks and trailers down a suburban street,” says Kate.

'That building is not going to cope with that forever. It's 35-years-old now. The community is not going to tolerate those leaky buildings you are going to have to do something about that and you can't do that out of the development contributions they are for a new library not the existing library,” says Kate.

The city council is sitting on $1.8million in development contributions that can only be used for a new library. There are also neighbouring council owned commercial properties purchased with the intention of their eventual sale proceeds also going towards the library project.

'If we only get the two million you have got a problem with adding to the building because it is in the wrong position on the site, and you would have to come out too far into the village square and that's not a go.

'What happens if that existing building isn't up to earthquake standards? So they decide to do some more add-ons, then more expenditure for strengthening.

'That's why we want some publicity, and we are putting this stuff out so we can get people to understand it.”

In the 2013/2014 Annual Plan, the previous council agreed to demolish the existing library and replace it with a 900m2 library facing onto the village green. The library project was later put aside because of a flooding issue.

The recommendation put to council in December is for a total budget of $3.45million, and seeking additional funding of $1.6million in capital expenditure from the 2014/2015 Annual Plan budget.

The additional cash is to come from $220,000 in development contributions and a $1million rate-funded load.

A decision will also start the sale process for 137 Greerton Rd, with proceeds to offset the rates funded-load and debt servicing costs.

The library expansion is an integral part of the Greerton Village Plan, which subsequent councils have failed to deliver on since it was signed off 17 years ago.

The council meeting is on Thursday, January 30 starting at 9am.