After a three month trial and engagement with the Stroud community, reduced operating hours at the Stroud Customer Service Point and Library were adopted at the 29 April 2026 Council meeting.

The trial was open for community feedback from Tuesday 27 January to Monday 2 March 2026.

24 surveys were completed and one written submission was received.

The feedback received from the community was considered before the reduced hours were adopted at the 29 March 2026 Ordinary Council meeting.

Most people were concerned that the library and customer service point would fully close and they did not want to lose this service. Many people were not affected by the Monday and Friday closure and can access the service on the days it is open.

Some regular customer service and library service users however did report potential impacts of a reduction in service hours including:

• there are older people who don’t use online methods to pay their rates or lodge service requests.
• the preschool attends the library once per term with all children attending on the day. They vary the weekday they choose to attend, as all children don’t attend each day. Closing the library on two days per week means that there is reduction in opportunities for library experiences.

Regular library users also expressed interest in some of the possible library services. There was some interest in other opening hours for the library, including weekends. It cannot however be concluded that non-service users would use the library if extra services or other opening times are offered, as we did not hear from them. We also heard that many residents are unaware there is a library in town.

Community feedback was considered in the decision to permanently reduce the operating hours at the Stroud Customer Service Point and Library to open from Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 12pm.

Community feedback demonstrated that many people were not affected by the Monday and Friday closure as they could access the service on the days it is open.

In addition to this, the Stroud community has access to alternate services which are commensurate to the services provided at our customer service point.

Stroud has a Post Office which operates Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5pm. All Council payments can be made at the Post Office.

Our call centre also operates Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 4.30pm. Customer request data indicates that this is the way the Stroud community routinely interacts with us.

The trial aims to open the service when it used the most and ensures we are using our funds efficiently.