Contentious new library spending suspended
After a messy first debate – marked with a Learner driver plate on mayor Nick Smith’s desk – Nelson City Council has voted to suspend further expenditure on the new library project.
Smith opened the meeting with the premise that the new library, budgeted to cost $46 million (adjusted for inflation) spread out over 65 years, was simply unaffordable for the community in the current economic environment.
‘‘We are in probably the most challenging economic times for more than a decade and ... it puts households under pressure. Underlying it is also the view that with high construction inflation, the cost of the project is likely to become greater . . . and the cost association with servicing the debt association with it is also increasing.’’
Smith said that libraries were one of the most important civic services the council provided, but said given the daunting recovery project ahead, it would be wiser to spend the overall lower cost of refurbishing the existing Elma Turner Library (expected to be about $2.5m) and stretch that asset over a longer period of time.
‘‘If you’re going to spend that order of magnitude ... you need to ensure the library is used, the repaired library is used for a substantive period,’’ he said.
‘‘The impact of the August flood and storm event has further tilted the scales in favour of not preceding with the library . . . It’s really easy, whether you are in central or local government . . . to be on the side of wanting to keep costs under control for ratepayers; the hard part is actually deciding which are the things that you’re not going to do.’’
However, there was some pushback on his original proposal to have staff prepare a draft proposal to remove the project from the Long Term Plan.
Councillor Trudie Brand said it would be ‘‘remiss’’ to remove the project from the LTP, saying previous councils had underinvested in civic infrastructure for the city.
She said it was important to put the $44 million price tag (unadjusted for inflation) into the context of other library projects, like Picton’s library which she said had a budget between $15m and $20m.
‘‘People need to put it in the context of what a new library is,’’ Brand said.
‘‘The library of the 21st century is not that of the 1970s, and investment is needed.’’
She said there needed to be a balance between flood recovery and having a city that was both recovering and thriving, and that there were several smaller council projects with budgets that could add up to equal the library project, and they should also be considered.
Councillor Pete Rainey also cautioned to learn from the past – highlighting the performing arts centre project which was ultimately decided against by the council despite a ‘‘clear’’ community need.
‘‘That’s never come back, yet the community need has never gone away,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s a potential for saying ‘well, we fixed up the old library’ … and it ends up being the library for the next 20 years.’’
He also said the budget, while a large amount up-front, would be spread over many years of debt servicing.
‘‘$46m is not a cost that the community would bear right now, it’s a cost that successive generations of the city would bear ... and in fact we’re still servicing the debt of many community projects that don’t get discussed.’’
Ultimately the council voted to support Smith’s motion to have no further expenditure incurred on the project pending further direction from the council, and rather than having staff prepare drafts to remove the project from the Long Term Plan (LTP), simply noted that removing the project from the LTP would be considered through the upcoming annual plan development process.