Southland District Council’s Winton library and office will operate from the Winton Memorial Hall from Monday, 20 May 2019.

A temporary location was needed following the closure of Winton Library this week after testing confirmed the presence of airborne mould spores and fungal contamination.

While further investigations are carried out, staff will operate from the supper room at the adjacent Winton Memorial Hall, enabling services such as rates payments and dog registration to continue for the community.

Hours of operation have changed to 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on a Saturday. 

“Winton is our busiest library in terms of payments taken and borrowers taking out material. With between 700 and 900 people a week coming through the doors, it is important for us to continue to provide a service for our communities,” chief executive Steve Ruru said.

“However, this remains a temporary site. As there is high demand for the Winton hall, we will need to look at some other options going forward.

“Our library programmes will continue to operate and further information will be released when we have established where we can hold the programmes. Our library staff are looking forward to staying connected to the customers.”

As staff are unable to access the collection in Winton Library at present, stocks will be limited and therefore the number of books users can borrow will be reduced. 

The due date for the return of books currently issued to users registered at Winton has been extended to June 3. Overdue fines will be waived for Winton customers and there will be no charge to have a book delivered from another Southland District library such as Otautau, Lumsden, Riverton, Stewart Island, Te Anau, Wyndham or the bookbus.