Newsletter August 2008

Welcome

Today’s Christchurch City Council meeting adopted the Libraries 2025 Facilities Plan – the framework to guide Council’s future decision-making in developing the city’s library network.

This follows extensive community consultation on the Draft Plan, Council hearings of the submissions and a Council workshop to consider community and stakeholder feedback. I thank all of you who took the time to contribute to this process, it has been invaluable in ensuring future development of the network meets changing community needs.

The Libraries 2025 Facilities Plan will meet the changing geographic and demographic needs of the city during the next 20 years with a review every six years to look at actual growth and revised projections to ensure the locating and timing of facilities reflects any changes in forecasted growth.

Each project in the Plan will be considered as a separate business case as part of the Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) process, Council looking to ensure it continues to provide the community with a world-class libraries network.

Libraries are recognised as contributing significantly to the social, cultural and economic well-being of the community; Christchurch having a proud history of investing in its network.

Under the Plan, Council has made a commitment to ensuring its libraries network remains customer-driven, provides value-for-money and offers a technically advanced service for its ratepayers and residents.

Council will tailor any future development, network reconfiguration or extension of services to better meet changing community needs, address growth and create focal points for community learning and leisure activities.

Under the adopted Plan Council plans to:

• Build a new library at Aranui to meet high community need.
• Build a new library at Belfast to cater for population growth.
• Build a replacement library at Halswell, to address population growth.
• Explore development options for Central Library in time to inform the 2012-2022 Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).
• Retain the library service at Bishopdale but review its location in the retail precinct.

• Optimise partnership and/or co-location opportunities with retail development at The Palms to relocate and upgrade the Shirley Library.
• Retain Hornby Library but investigate future options in line with the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy (UDS). 
• Evaluate the future role of Redwood Library following the opening of a new library at Belfast.
• Align Fendalton Library’s asset with similar sized suburban libraries in the network and investigate development of seven day opening. Consider inclusion of a café following ‘Cafes in libraries’ feasibility project.
• Develop a plan for the voluntary libraries within the 2025 framework that will maximise the community use of these facilities. This will include investigating partnership opportunities with external agencies and other Council units.
• Review service provision to Banks Peninsula libraries (Akaroa, Diamond Harbour, Little River and Lyttelton) within the framework of current levels of service for the library network. Scope future and current needs and acknowledging rural community needs.
• Continue to maintain and refurbish all community libraries and the Central Library as part of regular asset maintenance programmes and cycles. This includes those identified for possible future development and those expected to fulfil current need i.e. New Brighton, Parklands, South, Spreydon and Upper Riccarton.

Copies of the Libraries 2025 Facilities Plan will be available online and from libraries and Council service centres by the end of September.

Again, thank you to everyone for their involvement in developing the Plan and I look forward to continuing to work with you as we work to implement the proposed service enhancements.

Regards

Carolyn Robertson
Christchurch City Libraries Manager