Permanent closures of some libraries in Bristol seem inevitable

Permanent closures of some of Bristol’s 27 libraries seem inevitable, despite the fact that proposed cuts could be less severe than feared.

Plans unveiled to halve the service’s current £4.7m budget would have left as few as seven branches, plus Central Library, Bristol City Council’s finance sub-committee was told.

Options from doing nothing and keeping all libraries open to slashing £2.4m from the existing funding were debated at the meeting.

Public health & communities committee chairman, Lib Dem councillor Stephen Williams, said he opposed the biggest amount of cuts.

“It was too big and therefore it hasn’t been supported,” a former minister in the coalition government.

“What I do recognise is that we can’t make over £40m of savings (across the council) without the library service making some contribution.

“My strong steer to you is to go for one of the lower budgetary savings which would give us a nudge to reform the service…

“While in theory we’ve got a good network, the service offer is actually poor, if we’re honest, so I want a budgetary nudge to reform that service and make it fit for purpose.”

What is now Clifton Library was originally built as a private members’ club and was later a school – photo: Martin Booth

Green councillor Patrick McAllister said libraries were a “zombie service” in some areas of Bristol.

Williams replied that it is “certainly a shadowy service” with enormous variations across the city; for example Henleaze has 70,000 visitors a year compared to 3,000 at Avonmouth.

Bristol has more libraries than any other core city such as Liverpool which has 16.

Williams said: “We have a huge physical asset that is in the dark for a huge amount of the week, so we are very wastefully using a big resource at the moment.”

Williams said libraries had been cut severely in the past and that reducing opening times further while keeping the buildings was “political trickery, which I don’t want to do moving forward”.

“We could get to a point where the service offer in terms of hours open is not that different to what we have at the moment, but could well be delivered from fewer buildings.

“The point is it will be a better service for the public.”

He said a task force would be set up to establish the criteria for closing individual branches, and a scheme where residents accessed some libraries after hours when they were not staffed could be extended.

Kelvin Blake, Labour councillor for Hillfields, said: “Once bricks and mortar has gone, it’s gone, and you won’t be bringing it back in the future in communities.

“If we’re in a better position in the future then we can then extend hours and improve services.

Libraries are not used for traditional library services. The one in Hillfields, which is one of the ones at risk because of the numbers, is a massive community asset. It provides a lot of services.”

Filwood Labour councillor Rob Logan said £2m of cuts would be damaging: “There is an appetite to come up with something better, so surely we can come up with a better timescale and a better plan.”

The sub-committee’s comments will go to the strategy and resources committee which meets to agree the annual draft budget on February 3 ahead of the final decision by full council.

Main photo: Bristol24/7

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