Ōpōtiki residents are being reassured their library services are safe after the council looked to cut costs across a range of services in the Bay of Plenty community.

At a meeting this week, Ōpōtiki district councillors seemed incredulous that the public thought they ever planned to reduce library hours at Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi.

A delegation of library users addressed the council during the public forum of Tuesday’s meeting, in support of the library services.

It follows a meeting on February 7, where councillors discussed reducing services at the ISite, library, parks and reserves, and regional development organisation ToiEDA, in order to keep average rates rises below 13 percent.

Elected members had urged staff to try to find cuts wherever possible.

“Try to get more blood out of the stone,” councillor Steve Nelson said.

The meeting sparked outrage and made national headlines.

Between February 8 and March 12, the council received feedback from 28 members of the public, 26 of whom were against any reduction in services at the library.

At this week’s meeting, the council revoked its previous decision and endorsed a new set of recommendations for the budget.

These included a 10.5 percent general rates increase in year one. This included a reduction in operating budgets of about $400,000 across engineering, planning and regulatory and community services and development.

The new direction spreads the cost savings across more departments.

Cost saving measures still included decreasing council-organised events to one event a year and not funding ToiEDA.

Jan Willis spoke on behalf of Carol Quirk, who was not able to attend as she had Covid-19. Ms Quirk had spoken on TVNZ's Breakfast show against the proposed cuts.

She congratulated the council on its change in direction.

“If reports are to be believed, the core services are not now to be cut or moved. I have decided to speak, however, to make sure that such suggestions never happen again.

“You will have gauged the feelings of the community in the last month or so. You have lost the community on this topic, so the decision you make today is going to be very important and must be confirmed that the core service of the library and ISite stay as they are and perhaps even expand.”

She said 660 people had signed a petition to keep the library full time.

“As for the ISite, people love the events it puts on and people can’t afford to take their kids to Whakatāne if we don’t have any here.”

Crystal Beach spoke on behalf of Te Puāwaitanga o te Kākano, an adult learning organisation for rural women, which had no building for six months last year.

“Our library opened us with open arms. The staff were impeccable, and the knowledge was impeccable too. We need to make sure that it is an open space for people to feel welcome.”

Community members Ivor Jones, Grant Fraser, Dido Eden, Crystal Beach, Catherine and Jim Gill, Jan Willis and Meg Collins presented their feelings on the importance of Ōpōtiki library Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi at the Ōpōtiki District Council chambers on Tuesday. Photo: Diane McCarthy.

Coast ward councillor Maxie Kemara told the delegation that, at no stage, had any of the councillors agreed to reducing the library hours.

During discussion on the report, chief executive Stace Lewer attempted to clarify the matter for Mr Kemara.

He said that on December 14, he received feedback from elected members in relation to areas to explore for service level reductions.

“They included library, ISite, regional economic development and parks and recreation.”

At a workshop on December 18, staff presented a range of options, which included impacts of service level cuts at the library, such as reducing hours to 20 a week.

“We received feedback from elected members at that time, that they would like to also explore combining the ISite and library to see if it was more efficient.

“At the workshop on January 30, we presented a range of options to elected members, this included no service level reductions and also the original two options presented on December 18.

“The outcome from that was to not combine the ISite and the library as a result of not receiving the cost savings that they had hoped. Subsequently, the direction was included in the report to council on February 7, which included the reduction of hours at the library.”

Councillor Tom Brooks said there had been a lot of misinformation gone around, but “at least you’ve got the community talking”.

Councillors Nelson and Barry Howe both said it was never about downsizing the services, it was about running the organisation more efficiently.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.