‘Customers don’t feel safe’: library hours cut back
Threatening and intimidating behaviour from a group of young people has led the Gore District Council to close the Mataura library and service centre early every day.
The council’s interim chief executive, Stephen Parry, said there had been issues with antisocial behaviour by young people for some months.
That had escalated in the past week, he said, “to the point that our librarian, who works alone most of the time, and our customers don’t feel safe”.
The library and service centre would now close every day at 2:30pm until further notice.
“The safety of our staff and customers is a priority for the council. The decision to close early was not made lightly,’’ Parry said.
He said the antisocial behaviour happened when teenagers who were not in school arrived to wait for the school buses to drop off their friends, and then everyone loitered around the area and in the building.
“Closing early means the librarian can avoid this situation. The council has notified the police, and we are working on putting a health and safety plan in place.
“We believe the young people are between 12 and 19 years old.’’
It is understood some businesses on Bridge St were also having issues with the behaviour, although none would speak about it publicly to Stuff.
Sergeant Eric Browne of Gore said police had received one report this year regarding the Mataura Library. An investigation into that incident, which involved “obscene language by youths” on March 18, was ongoing.
“No other information has been received by police this year regarding this location,” he said.
“There is no place for offensive language, or behaviour which disrupts or threatens members of our community. Where this does occur, police will work hard to determine what occurred, identify those involved and take appropriate action.”
Browne said police could only act on information they received and urged the public to report any incidents of concern on 111 if it was current or 105 after the fact.
In 2019, two youths were trespassed from the library after they harassed staff and damaged the building.