- Gore District Council to trial new hours for Mataura Library and Service Centre.
- Trial hours aim to meet customer needs and ensure staff safety.
- Trial includes new measures to prevent anti-social behaviour.
The Gore District Council will trial new opening hours at the Mataura Library and Service Centre to better meet customers’ needs while ensuring a safe work environment for staff. Earlier this year, the library had to adjust its closing time to 2:30pm due to increasing anti-social behaviour from groups of young people who loitered after school to use the free wifi.
Concerns were raised about the safety of the two Mataura librarians, who often work alone, and the safety of customers. Since implementing the early closing time, no further incidents of disorderly behaviour have occurred.
Library Manager Emma Sherie stated that staff proposed the trial after conducting two risk assessments and consulting with the team. “We were so grateful for the community support our library staff received and the concerns for their safety. We wanted to ensure we continued to provide an accessible service while keeping our staff safe.”
The trial will extend the library’s opening hours from 10:00am to 4:00pm, offering uninterrupted service. Currently, the library closes from 12:30pm to 1:00pm for lunch. As part of the trial, the free public wifi will be turned off from 3:00pm to 5:00pm to discourage youths from gathering in the area. However, customers will still have access to the library’s computers for online research or study.
“Our neighbouring businesses have benefitted from the wifi being off in the afternoons, so we were keen to see this continue,” Sherie added. Another benefit of the continuous opening hours is the increased availability of meeting space for not-for-profit organisations.
The trial will commence on Monday 15 July and will be reviewed after three months.