It’s been great to see the stream of photos and hear about how busy the Ashburton Library has been these school holidays.

From dragon wings to masks, and even an escape room, the library has been bustling, and that’s alongside all the books and other items that have been checked out too.

The escape room, which was a free activity, was booked out well ahead of time and there was plenty of family fun as young and old worked together to solve clues to a Matariki-themed puzzle.

I’m looking forward to seeing the library’s final number of issues for the 2023-24 year because at the end of April they were tracking at nearly 20,000 issues more than the previous year. Membership numbers too are rising, as people join up so they can use the technology and make the most of the new facility.

Foot traffic at the end of April was about 130,000 for the year, compared to 80,000 at the same time last April, so I look forward to seeing those end-of-year totals too, bearing in mind the library was shut for several weeks while it moved to Te Whare Whakatere in January.

The list of regular activities never fails to impress me – there’s craft and chatter, the book club, the knitting group, Lego clubs, sound studio training, Wriggle and Read and Next Chapter, which is a monthly programme of literacy-based activities designed for those living with dementia. And that’s only a fraction of the list.

It’s great to see Te Whare Whakatere also being used for community learning sessions and workshops, in spaces booked by outside agencies and organisations. It is, after all, a community and communal space.

A room that councillors have spent a lot of time in and is up for tender, is the temporary former Council chamber on Havelock Street. The chamber doubled as a civil defence headquarters in times of crisis and so has some extra amenities like a kitchen, store rooms, a shower and several toilets.

It’s a building with a lot of life in it yet, and is one of four relocatable buildings up for tender.

The tender process offers equal opportunities to both commercial and community groups, and councillors will weigh up bids against the intended use of the building.

The process is very similar to when the Mid Canterbury Aero Club acquired the former iSite building on the East Street green and relocated it to the airport, where it was renovated and became a new administration base.

I'd encourage any community groups who might have a good use for one of these buildings to take a closer look and consider placing an offer.