Library plan halts

By Shaun Inguanzo
THE City of Casey has refused to buy Greater Dandenong’s decommissioned mobile library because it is too dilapidated to operate.
A report to the Casey council recommended that the council not purchase the trailer and prime mover because it was in poor condition which included significant evidence of rusting. Casey councillor Wayne Smith, who had advocated for the council to purchase Greater Dandenong’s mobile library after that council decommissioned it in December 2007, said he was disappointed by the result.
He said he did not think the trailer – which he and fellow Casey councillor Colin Butler had inspected – was as bad as officers had suggested.
Cr Butler, also a mobile library advocate, moved an alternative motion that Casey council therefore buy a new mobile library to service Casey’s coastal and growth townships.
Only Crs Halsall, Smith and Butler supported the motion, and so it was defeated.
“We tried to get a new one but it didn’t happen, so we have to wait three months until we can raise the item again,” Cr Smith said. “It’s disappointing; the council was arguing that there was no business plan and no evidence to suggest there was a need for the service.
“But our intention (is not to do a business plan) because there is a report from the Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation that identifies a need for library services in those areas.”