TALKS TO CHANGE LIBRARY SERVICES

Library-users could be given the chance to decide on new opening hours for facilities across County Durham if changes to services are given the go-ahead.

Durham County Council’s Cabinet will next week be asked to approve proposals that would enable it to make required savings of £1.457m while ensuring that all libraries can remain open.

The authority is proposing to reduce opening hours at its library buildings and change its mobile library service as part of its work to save £159.2m by 2016.

A public consultation on the initial proposals ended in May and the feedback received has helped shape the recommendations Cabinet will consider when they meet on Wednesday, 11 July.

In particular, plans for mobile libraries to only call at settlements at least four miles from a library building have been changed following concerns about access to services in rural areas.

This distance has been amended to at least three miles under the revised proposals meaning almost 80 per cent of current mobile library users would now still receive the service.

Cllr Maria Plews, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for leisure, libraries and lifelong learning, said: “With increased financial pressures due to Government spending reductions, we have no choice but to make changes to our service.

“However, it is essential that library users are able to play a part in shaping these changes. Public feedback has already influenced our proposals and, if these are agreed, library users will also get the opportunity to help decide new opening times.”

The council has 27 community and 12 town centre libraries, including Clayport, where opening hours have already been reduced.

More than 5,800 people completed questionnaires on the proposed changes to library services, with a further 881 members of the authority’s Citizens’ Panel also taking part in the consultation. Presentations were also given at each of the 14 AAPs.

The council also received more than 100 letters, emails and web-based responses and eight petitions during the consultation period.

More than 70 per cent of people who responded to the questionnaire and 91 per cent of the Citizens’ Panel members who took part in the consultation supported the proposal to reduce opening hours rather than close libraries.

There was also support for consistent opening hours, with 61 per cent of questionnaire respondents and 65 per cent of Citizens’ Panel members agreeing.

There was some opposition to consistent opening hours, but no there was no consensus on an alternative option, with many respondents’ views favouring the continuation of existing opening hours at their own library but the closure of others.

More than 60 per cent of people who completed the questionnaire and more than 70 per cent of Citizens’ Panel respondents supported the proposed criteria for those communities that would be served by mobile libraries.

However, there was a lower level of support from those people who use the mobile library service themselves, with the main concern being access to the service if provision was reduced.

In response to this feedback, further work was carried out to remodel the proposals so that mobile libraries would call at all settlements at least three miles from a library building rather than four miles.

This could be achieved without reducing the level of savings made if the frequency of visits to most communities was reduced to every three weeks rather than every two. The change would enable additional settlements to retain the mobile service.

If the proposals are approved, library users will be invited to choose from a number of options for opening hours for their local library building.

People who use the mobile library service in those areas where there are currently a number of halts, will be asked to indicate their choice of where they would like the library to stop in the future. This information will be used to develop the route for the service.