Te Anau’s Friends of the Library group is outraged at plans announced by the Southland District Council this week to permanently merge its front office functions with the town’s library.

Chairwoman Marilyn Hunter said the community voiced very clear opposition to such a proposal when it was first mooted during the council’s log term planning process two years ago. At that time the council had pledged not to proceed without a feasibility study and full community consultation.

However, when the long-serving council office administrator resigned at the beginning of this year, her position had not been replaced and the office was closed and functions such as rates payments, building consent queries and dog registrations were relocated to the library, Mrs Hunter said.

“The community made it quite clear they did not want the community library made into a council hub and that position still stands,” she said.

“We knew something was up because the office space has been cleared out so there were never any intentions to reinstate it.”

In a statement issued yesterday, council customer delivery group manager Trudie Hurst says several staff changes in both the library and the separate office meant it was a good time to look at what could work best for the people of Fiordland as well as considering efficiencies and improvements.

“We talked to the Fiordland Community Board and Friends of the Library and they have shared some valuable insight into how things could be improved. We have listened to these views and ideas about the services you want and believe we can make some simple modifications to improve the experience in the short term, without compromising library space,” Ms Hurst says.  

“We made the decision to transfer the customer support component of the office to the library, so people only need to go to one place, and this is also consistent with our district approach.”

But Mrs Hunter said that made it sound like the Friends of the Library had been consulted and had even assented to the move, but nothing could be further from the truth.

“We were just told. They know our position, and our position has not changed.”

She said library users had already complained about the council office functions negatively affecting the environment of the library and there were also concerns about the lack of privacy for people wanting to discuss their council-related business in such an open, public environment.

Ms Hurst’s statement says the council is working with library design experts on a design plan but Mrs Hunter said the Friends of the Library had been told the footprint of the building would not be increased. She said her group believed the building did not have the capacity to accommodate private meeting areas or additional offices without encroaching on the library space. 

The council has planned an open day for the community at the library between 11am and 2pm on July 26 “to show what we are proposing to ensure both services – library and customer support – can serve the public, and hopefully provide some improvements for the library service as well”.

The design plan is expected to be shared with the Fiordland Community Board and the Friends of the Library before the open day.