Boyd meeting rooms comes at a cost

The Boyd library community meeting rooms now come at a cost to those wanting to use them.

The City of Melbourne started charging for use of the principal’s office and assembly hall at the start of this year.

Thankfully community groups won’t be asked to dig too deep. The hourly rate for the Assembly Hall is $10.

For commercial use the space comes at a heftier price, $90 per hour or $630 for a day.

Councillor Richard Forster said the cost brought Boyd in line with other buildings of its type around the city.

“Boyd has adopted a co-located service model that provides for a library, maternal and child health and family counselling services, including playgroups and new parent groups, artist studios, community meeting rooms and a cafe,” Mr Foster said.

“The charging of user fees is common across all our community facilities and we have kept community groups informed that fees will be in place from January 1, 2013,” he added.

He also made the point that the city was careful to establish community activity in the area and as such wanted to differentiate between community and commercial groups within Boyd.

“The fee structure ensures government, education, small business and community groups are not charged at the full commercial rate, as the City of Melbourne recognises the importance of having affordable facilities available to our local community.”