BUSINESS owners in the Beardy Street Mall are overwhelmingly disappointed with Armidale Regional Council’s decision to relocate the library.
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Council administrator Ian Tiley made the choice on Wednesday and the library will now be moved to 1/182 Rusden Street into the Pheonix Centre.
Brennan and Smith optical dispenser Sue Armatage said she felt it would pull people away from the CBD.
“Given the fact that they’ve already spent $1 million plus on it is ridiculous anyway,” she said.
“I reckon the better option will be the Hanna’s building which is going to bring people back down that way and keep people in this area.”
New England Travel director Craig Ritchie mirrored the sentiment.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea when we’ve got empty buildings in the East Mall that could possibly house it,” he said.
“We’ve seen the effect of Centro [Armidale Central] on the CBD so it’s just another thing that takes people away from the centre of town, to me it’s a crazy move.
“Particularly spending that amount of money on a building that’s not purpose built, if they want something that’s not purpose built there’s the ANZ Bank down in the East Mall, there’s also the Hanna’s building that’s empty and they already have parking for enough people to do that.”
A book man himself, Reader’s Companion owner Roy Wheatley said the library should be a pivotal part of the Armidale CBD.
“I think anything that moves the centre of town, pulls apart the centre of town, is a mistake,” he said.
Courthouse Coffee owners Peter and Chrissy Rologas said they had been around long enough to see the affect of the Courthouse move on the mall, and believed the library relocation would worsen the situation.
“It’s not just my business that will be affected, it’s everybody in the mall,” Mrs Rologas said.
“We try to bring more people to come to the mall and now they’re taking all the shops away.”
Concepts manager Wendy Hammond felt that the library move would have a limited affect on her shop.
“Because it is so quiet in the mall here I’m finding that it’s the customer that wants to come here that will make the effort to come here, and it’s the same customer that you see comes all the way everyday to go to the newsagents, so I don’t think it’s going to affect us very much at all,” she said.
Ms Hammond and a business owner that refused to go on record were the only two businesses that felt the library move would be a positive one.
Former Mayor Jim Maher has stated that the library is visited by 1500 to 1700 people each week.