Whanganui District Council pressed to commit to stalled Davis Library extension
Former libraries manager Pete Gray outside the Davis Library in 2020, the facility's 40th year of operation. Photo / NZME
The former manager of Whanganui’s Davis Library has urged the council to commit to an extension project, but another deferral appears likely.
During submission hearings on Whanganui District Council’s 2026-27 Annual Plan, Pete Gray said libraries were the council’s most-used public facilities, with most visits at the Davis.
“Provision at the library is well below the New Zealand standard for accommodation, it’s about 64%,” he said.
“That leaves insufficient space for customers, for events and particularly for collections.
“The shelves are packed.”
The council plans to add $700,000 to its 2026-27 budget for a new roof at the Davis, but a $2.7 million extension, which would add 550sq m, is proposed for reconsideration through its 2027-37 Long-Term Plan (LTP).
It was first included in the 2021-31 LTP, then deferred to the 2024-34 LTP.
The council’s 2022-23 Annual Plan budgeted $300,000 for the extension’s design work.
Gray’s annual plan submission said that began in late March 2023 but was halted on the instructions of the former council chief executive without consulting elected members or informing the public and library team.
“The costs we have are based on concept drawings, the area of the building, rather than the details of how it’s to be constructed,” he told councillors.
“We need to have full construction drawings to be able to say, ‘this is what the cost is going to be, this is how it’s going to be built and this is the money we then need to raise, both from rates and external fundraising’.
“Commitment from council to the project is also essential to fundraising.”
In another submission, Whanganui resident Peter Gilderdale said decisions around the extension, and any eventual alternatives, needed to be prioritised.
“Leaving them for the next 10-year plan means that nothing will be done for years and years,” he said.
“This may be the actual intention, but it is a bad intention.”
Gilderdale said Singapore had run up significant debt to finance world-class facilities and was a great place to visit.
“Auckland, by way of comparison, didn’t put in rapid transport in the 1970s because councillors were afraid of ratepayers, and look at the mess that has created,” he said.
“It is okay to run up debt to put in facilities that benefit ratepayers.
“A library that is up to current standards is one such an investment.”
The Davis, at Pukenamu Queen’s Park, opened in October 1980.
Gray told the Chronicle in 2023 that Whanganui needed 3570 to 3710sq m of public library space to meet New Zealand Standards for Public Libraries.
But all Whanganui libraries combined (the Davis and Alexander Libraries, Gonville Library, Hakeke Street Library, Aramoho Library and Rangiora Street Library) totalled just over 2380sq m.
During the hearings, he said plans needed to be completed as envisaged in 2022-23 so the council could make an informed decision.
“A library extension of some form has been on the books, planned in various different schemes, for more than 25 years.
“In the original 2021-31 LTP, it would now be open, to be honest. It’s already been delayed some considerable amount.”
According to the Whanganui Heritage Inventory, the Wanganui Public Library was incorporated under the Public Libraries Act in January 1877, with 219 subscribers paying a fixed annual rate of one guinea.
Gray said the 150th anniversary of that event would be “an excellent hook on which to hang completing the plans and starting the fundraising programme”.
“The library is more than just a book warehouse,” he said.
“It’s a place where people go to spend time, to meet, to do work, to relax and to read.
“I think it’s time that council committed to the delivery of its promises to the community.”
Deliberations on the Annual Plan will take place in the council chamber from 9.30am on June 4.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.