In today’s epic council meeting the 1st Option on the Agenda — refurbish and extend the former library — received unaminous support.

But don’t expect it to happen quickly.

Says Waikanae Community Board Chair, Richard Mansell: “with any project like this the starting generally takes time. The first thing to do will be to decide what needs doing. As a start I suspect they will need to do a proper survey of the building so the extent of the repairs can be established.

“After that the design work will start of both the repairs and the end look and make-up of the building.

“The entire process was estimated to take 2 years and I would not expect to see any ‘work’ being done on the building for a year. Once the dust has settled, I will ask the project lead for a rough timeline and hopefully be able to publish it. However, with any refurbishment of old buildings you don’t really know the extent of the works until the walls are ripped off.

“But we can now officially start!”