CONWY was this week presented with a petition signed by 1,800 residents against the council moving Llandudno’s library and tourist information centre to Venue Cymru.
Chairing the economy and place overview and scrutiny committee at Bodlondeb, Cllr Mike Priestley told councillors Conwy had received a petition against the plans as part of a ‘save our high street’ campaign.
The petition included an e-petition with 936 signatures as well as a paper version with a further 688 signatures.
Cllr Priestley then explained Conwy received a further 230 signatures on a petition from people outside the county, but these couldn’t be considered due to council policy.
Presenting the petitions, Cllr Harry Saville slammed the move as damaging to the town’s high street.
“We, the undersigned, say that keeping them where they are now, attracting over 200,000 visits a year, is vital to sustaining Mostyn Street as a busy, vibrant, and viable town centre,” he said.
“It is a bad decision and naive at best to suggest purposefully removing high street amenities won’t have a substantial impact on footfall and retailers, let alone all the community support given by both. We demand that the council reconsider this move and conduct and make public a professional economic impact study of the proposed move.”
He added: “We know that this has been out to consultation. I think it’s really important to see what those consultation responses say.”
Cllr Saville then added that he hoped Conwy’s library strategy would mean Llandudno library could be saved. He pointed to the fact Colwyn Bay library had been saved over three years ago after a public backlash, following a proposed move to the council’s new HQ at Coed Pella.
Cllr Saville then said: “I would really hope that now, three and a half years later, if there is similar resistance from the public to relocating Llandudno’s library, that Llandudno is treated fairly and it’s library remains in the library building.”
Cllr Saville said the council should also work with Mostyn Estates, the owner of the current library building. He also said UK Government grant funding proposed to renovate Venue Cymru was not reliant on Llandudno library being part of that renovation.
Cabinet member for culture, governance and IT, Cllr Dilwyn Roberts said the cabinet would take all residents’ views into consideration before a final decision in June, when a report on the impact on the high street would be considered.
The matter will be discussed at a committee meeting in three weeks’ time once a report is prepared.
