LAUNCESTON library’s building could cost the town council hundreds of thousands of pounds if the running of it was devolved from Cornwall Council, a meeting heard last week.

At last Tuesday’s meeting of Launceston Town Council, a presentation was given about the financial implications of the town council taking over Launceston library.

The town council had previously agreed to commission business consultancy ‘Perfect Moment’ to carry out research to help the council in considering the future of the library at a cost of around £11,000.

The report looked at the financial implications of the town council taking over Launceston library, and Kevin Brownridge of Perfect Moment gave a presentation to councillors and members of the public present at the meeting last week.

The meeting heard from Mr Brownridge that the library building, at Bounsall’s Lane, is ‘not in the greatest condition’: “It could be costly both to maintain and to run it,” and he said they estimate a backlog of around £50,000 in repairs.

He added of the building: “It’s not in the greatest position in the town, up that hill, out of the way. However, we didn’t identify anywhere else — There was nowhere at the time identified that we could possibly move it to.”

He said he thought the library would be in that building for a minimum of the next 12 years, adding in 12 years’ time there could be an opportunity when the lease comes up on the building next to the library.

He said the land the library is on ‘isn’t worth a great deal’ to be sold off for housing, and a building survey needed to be undertaken to see what the repairs and cost of those might be.

According to Mr Brownridge, the ‘big, difficult’ option for the town council would be to ‘say to Cornwall Council we don’t want to take the building over’: “You can take that position if you find out it’s really in worse condition than you think.”

He said to keep the building for the next 10 to 12 years the town council, if it took the library on, would probably need to spend the backlog of around £50,000, plus £30,000 to £40,000. For a 20-year life of the building the council would need to spend at least £100,000, nearly £200,000 over the next couple of years to bring it up to standard, or over half a million pounds for a 50-year life for the building.

The council was told that the library staff costs are around £60,000 a year, but that the library runs on a skeleton staff, and £30,000 in running costs, and that the council, should it decide to take the library on, should look to set aside around £25,000 for major repairs — around £115,000 altogether.

Mr Brownridge added: “If you are going to put £115,000 into that library every year you are going to have to put rates up considerably.”

He said Perfect Moment looked at how they could bring costs down — one option was to move the town’s Tourist Information Centre (TIC) into the library building. This would move the TIC out of its central town position, but he said both TICs and libraries are ‘about giving out information’, with the possibility there to ‘merge some roles together’.

He added: “It wouldn’t be the best thing for the TIC — it might be the best thing for the library.”

Another option would be to move the TIC to the town’s Lawrence House Museum, but that option ‘wouldn’t make as many savings’.

Mr Brownridge summed up the library building: “Cornwall Council just want you to take it off their hands. You have to consider whether that’s affordable.

“There is a negotiation to be had with Cornwall Council. I think just to say thank you very much for a building that’s getting to the end of its life and is problematic… I’m not so sure it’s a great asset to you.”

Cllr John Conway said the library ‘always has been a white elephant’: “Cornwall Council have the legal responsibility to provide a library service for the people of Cornwall.

“We knew there were problems with the building but your report puts it in black and white.”

He mentioned the registry office and One Stop Shop, both situated in the library, adding: “We must make sure we keep a registry office in town”

Cllr Jane Nancarrow said people in the town were ‘excited’ when the library was built, and expressed her thanks to the people who work in the library for a ‘brilliant job’.

Mr Brownridge added: “We know why people want to keep the library service, it’s a massive part of the community and I think the staff deserve a lot for working in a sometimes leaky and hot and cold building.”

Mayor Cllr Brian Hogan said, because of the financial implications, he felt the matter should be discussed further by the town council’s finance and general purposes committee, and Cllr Paul O’Brien said the full town council was ‘too big a forum to do it’. This was agreed.

The finance and general purposes committee next meets on May 4.