South Wales Evening Post - 30 March 2006
A Mobile library service for Gower could be scrapped to meet the costs of moving Swansea Library to its new home in County Hall, a councillor has warned. Richard Lewis believes the authority will be forced to sacrifice the facility, which takes books around the peninsula, if the price of transferring the library to its new home continues to rise.
But his claims have been dismissed as scaremongering by his colleagues in the ruling coalition.
Councillor Lewis fears the cost of moving the library from its current base in Alexandra Road to County Hall will be much more than has been suggested by the authority.
The Gower councillor believes it will mean other library services getting the chop to cover the cost.
"I don't think we can afford to spend £6 million at this time," he added.
"We have started something which will end up costing considerably more than was estimated.
"We should call a halt to it and have a financial review before we spend any of that money.
"If the council was in a cash-rich situation, then it would be fine.
"But we have got huge expenditures coming up such as Service@Swansea and the leisure centre.
"Telling people who live in Port Eynon or Llangennith that they have to come to County Hall if they want to pick up a library book is ridiculous."
But other councillors have dismissed the claim as nonsense.
Councillor Gerald Clement, deputy leader of Swansea Council, said he had already told Councillor Lewis that the facility was safe.
"The Gower mobile library service will not face closure and I have reassured Councillor Lewis about this," he said.
