THE third consultation event for the future of the Camelford library was held recently, with mayor and town councillors on hand to answer any questions residents had.

The drop-in event was held at the Camelford Hall on Tuesday, October 11, starting in the afternoon and finishing in the early evening. Residents were able to come along in their own time to find out more information about the library, how much money it will cost them to keep the library running, and what will happen in the future.

This event was the third of four consultation events. The first was at the Camelford Show in August, the second took place at Enfield Park, and the fourth is due to take place at the local primary school.

As of March 2017, Cornwall Council will no longer provide the funding needed to keep Camelford’s library open. The town council was the only local group which expressed interest in taking the library on, but are now informing people that it’s going to cost them a considerable amount of money if they want the council to go ahead with these plans.

Town mayor Rob Rotchell was on hand to answer any questions people might have. He told the Post: “This is a chance for people that haven’t had their say, to tell us what they want. This means people are having the opportunity to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and it also lets us answer questions.”

The town council has informed residents that, in order to run the library, it will cost them an extra 50p a week on top of their existing tax to keep the band D property running.

Cllr Rotchell explained that as soon as the consultation process is finished and the council has a clear indication that residents want the town council to take on the library, they will be able to work on a budget and make a plan.

Town clerk Lee Dunkley was also in attendance. He said: “Today is all about showing residents that the council has a big decision to make about the library; it will mean extra responsibility and will increase the tax for local residents.

“Do people want the town council to take on projects and maintain things, such as the library, or leave it and save money for everyone?”

Cllr Rotchell continued: “The thing is with Camelford Town Council, is that we’ve never put anything off; we’ve discussed things and made quick decisions. People wanted us to take on the toilets, and we did it; people spoke about having an electric charge point, and we put that in too.”

Mr Dunkley added: “Flood defences, work to the car park, and we’re also recruiting a new admin assistant as well, so we’ll be going from one to two. It’s double capacity for the council, but the more we take on, the more positive impact we hope we’ll make, or else these services will just go.”

Cllr Rotchell reported that about 96% of local people are in favour of the town council taking the library on as of next year. This has also been conveyed in the council’s jar of counters, used at each consultation event; dropping a green counter into the jar means the individual is for the proposal, dropping a red counter means the individual is against. This acts as a visual survey for the councillors to determine how residents feel about the idea.

Cllr Rotchell said: “When we’ve got a clear picture, we will start the budgeting process. We already know how much it will cost the town council, but we will have to sort out operational costs, and we’ll also have to move the town council offices into the town hall.

“At the moment, we have a separate office, but if this goes ahead, we will have to close it and move it to the town hall, as part of the budgeting and logistics process. There will be no external work to the library, as it’s a listed building, but there are offices upstairs that will have to be sorted out, and we’ve got all the quotes to do that.

“So as soon as the decision process and budgeting is finished, we’ll be able to get started.”

Councillors hope that children and young people would also benefit if the town council take on the library. The council recently targeted young people at the Camelford Show, and are hoping that the fourth consultation process, which will take place at the primary school, will also get them on board with the scheme.

Additionally, it will give parents and staff the opportunity to find out more, and it is hoped that students from Sir James Smith’s School on their way to and from school will also drop by and find out more information.

Although there is no set date for this consultation event yet, councillors hope that it will be as successful as the previous meetings with the public.

Cllr Rotchell added: “We’ll keep reading groups and things like that going, but we’ll want to hear from the young people of Camelford to let us know what they want. The next consultation event in particular will give us the opportunity to ask children and young people ‘what do you want to do with this?’ We want more ideas about what we should have going on in the library.”

Following the event on October 11, the Post got in touch with Cllr Rotchell to see how the rest of the day went, and it seems they made progress with their proposals, with 34 locals and residents of Camelford turning out to find out more and express their views. Councillors were also happy to see that, by the end of the consultation meeting, their jar of counters was mostly green!

Cllr Rotchell said: “We had a good chat, and people seemed to be mostly supportive, so we’re definitely on target with our plans.

“People that came along were supportive of the proposals, and asked about things like if the library would be open for longer, and if it would offer the same range of services. In response, we basically told them that yes, the library would potentially have longer opening times, and that we would keep the same services, although we are interested in seeing what other things we could bring to it.”

He said that members of the public were convinced that other parishes should be involved in this process, as residents from the Camelford network also use the town’s library.

He added: “We’ll look into this, as many people think other parishes in the area should be contributing, because it serves the whole network. As soon as we’ve concluded the consultation process and made a formal recommendation, we can look into this properly.”