Fifteen out of the county’s 34 libraries are under threat of closure if voluntary staff cannot be found to run the service
Almost half of Somerset’s 34 libraries could be under threat of closure if volunteers are not found to run them.
Struggling to meet its budgets, Somerset county council is looking to save up to £520,000 from its library budget. It is preparing to launch a consultation on 29 January setting out plans to use community involvement to keep 15 of its 34 libraries open. If volunteers are not found for the 15 branches, they will close.
We aim to keep as many library buildings as possible open. However, the consultation proposes that, for a number of libraries, we may require community support to do this, through partnerships with local communities,” says a report about the consultation.
“We recognise that some of our proposals present difficult choices for communities and wish to stress there is no expectation that communities should step forward. This is entirely their choice. Where communities are unable to provide sufficient support to keep a building open, alternative library services will be provided such as library outreach services, online services or mobile library services.”
The council said that the proposals “seek to put the service on a sustainable footing for the long-term, at a time when all council budgets are under enormous pressure”.
Councillor David Hall said: “These are challenging financial times. Library services will continue across Somerset whatever the response from this consultation, but our proposals highlight that keeping some libraries open may require community support. Where we are unable to keep libraries open, we will deliver library services in other ways such as via alternative venues or mobile library services.”
Somerset is not the only region facing drastic cutbacks to its library service. In Northamptonshire, campaigners are fighting the planned closure of up to 28 of the council’s 36 libraries. But Somerset campaigners have fought off threats to their libraries before: in 2011, a high court judge ruled that in planning to withdraw funding from 11 Somerset libraries, the council had failed to take account of its equality duties.
Speaking about the new consultation, Friends of Somerset Libraries’s John Irven, who was part of the legal action in 2011, told ITV News: “The question will come when we look at the final resources available, how much local communities can or can’t contribute into these areas and what the ultimate solution is. But let’s not pre-judge it before we start, let’s actively engage and hopefully come up with solutions.”
출처 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/22/somerset-says-only-volunteers-can-keep-libraries-open
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