Labor promises $8m library for The Gap ward if its candidate wins battle for Brisbane City Council seat

The Labor candidate for a north Brisbane ward has promised the area will get an $8 million library if he is elected on March 28, but his LNP opponent has urged caution.

The Gap ward will get an $8 million library, possibly like this one planned for Bracken Ridge, if Labor’s candidate is elected on March 28. Image: Brisbane City Council pdonline

Labor’s candidate for The Gap Daniel Bevis has committed to build a new $8 Community Hub and Library for residents in The Gap Ward if elected on March 28.

Mr Bevis, who gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition for a new library, said this new facility would mean The Gap, Ferny Grove, Upper Kedron and Keperra would no longer be “second-class citizens” when it came to council infrastructure.

“I have lived in this area for more than 35 years and the community has been calling for a library and community meeting spaces for as long as I can remember.”

Mr Bevis says such a facility would also provide spaces for local clubs and organisations to meet.

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“A library and community hub provides something for everyone from early literacy and socialisation opportunities for little ones, to a space for young people to come together after school, to computer classes for seniors,” he said.

Mr Bevis’ LNP opponent, and current councillor for The Gap, Steve Toomey, said he would be reluctant to commit to putting a library in the ward until he knew the cost.

“Without having a balanced budget and a surplus budget we can’t provide all the other services that council provides,” Cr Toomey said.

“A lot of those services would be at jeopardy if you started if you started just throwing money at specific projects.”

He said the location was another big question, in terms of the suburb it would be built and what type of location it went.

Most library patrons liked them to be located near shopping districts, he said.

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Ferny Grove Upper Kedron Residents Association president Max Crane supported locating a library in the northern part of the ward, saying his group’s members had to travel about 5km to get to the nearest Brisbane City Council library at Mitchelton.

Mr Bevis said the location would be determined after community consultation.

“If elected, one of the first things I will do is start consulting with the community about exactly where the new library and community hub should be situated and what sort of features it needs to have,” he said.