The latest response from the Queenstown Lakes District Council to the Protect Wanaka Library (PWL) group's concerns has drawn criticism from group members.
The group had asked the council to delay changing the district's library services - as recommended in the council's organisational review - so a public consultation process could be carried out. Group committee member Prue, Lady Wallis, said the response from Mayor Vanessa van Uden had ''no mention whatsoever of the specific concerns outlined therein and we have no way of knowing whether in fact they were listened to''. Ms van Uden said the decision to undertake a council-wide review of service delivery would not be reconsidered.
This was ''something which they had not been asked to do'', Lady Wallis said. Ms van Uden said the way forward was for the public to ask in the annual plan submission process for a survey to be conducted with the community to find out what level of service was desired at the library.
However, fellow PWL member Dame Sukhi Turner said a survey was not relevant to the group's objective.
''What we've asked for is a description of what we're getting now so then we've got an accountability document.''
Nicola Martinovich, also a PWL member, said by the time the annual plan submission period closed at the end of this month, library jobs would already have been disestablished and new appointments made.
In email correspondence this week with QLDC hierarchy, Lady Wallis said chief executive Adam Feeley's suggestion the changes were ''not set in concrete'' and would not downgrade library services was ''nonsense''.
''Are you suggesting that the staffing changes to be made this month will be reversed later if new information renders them ineffective?'' she queried.
