The centre, which incorporates the Glen Innes Severn library, is a community facility operating with four stakeholder groups; Glen Innes Severn Council, TAFE NSW New England Institute, the University of New England and the Glen Innes Art Gallery Incorporated. The cCentre took six years to build from inception to completion and cost $2.5 million dollars.

Although Glen Innes Severn Council owns and operates the building which opened on November 21, 2005, the land is owned by the NSW Department of Education. Late last year the Library Management Committee decided to ask the department to transfer ownership of the land to the council.

In her report to council, Director of Corporate and Community Services Lotta Jackson advocated the need for council to purchase the land.

“As the Learning Centre building is an asset of council, it is imperative that council secure the land on which the building stands. This will ensure that there are no potential claims to the land in the future and that the land surrounding the building can be utilised by council for future projects should such projects materialise,” she wrote.

Subsequent to correspondence between council and the department, on August 11 the Department of Education offered to sell the land to council for an amount of $230, 000 plus $23,000 GST. The figure is based on a valuation of the property market.

“The actual land value is higher then expected but it is reassuring that the land is of value,” Mayor Steve Toms said during the council meeting.

Council will fund the purchase of the land from its Building reserve, which currently contains $1,244,000.