Library closures 'will double unless immediate action is taken'

A further 340 public libraries could close in the next five years if the government does not act urgently to halt drastic funding cuts, the head of a leading library organisation has warned, which would equal the number of closures witnessed by the sector over the past eight years.

Nick Poole, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals (Cilip) said: “We have already lost 340 libraries over the past eight years and we think that unless immediate action is taken, we stand to lose the same number over the next five years.”

Official figures revealed last week showed that UK libraries had lost £25m in their budgets in just one year. As 2017 is not an election year, Poole said, Cilip was anticipating that “local politicians will try to get library cuts through” over the next 12 months.

In the 20 library authorities Cilip is monitoring over proposed cuts, Poole said five – Swindon, Warrington, Lancashire, Edinburgh and Denbighshire – were cause for deep concern. He warned that the list of endangered libraries would grow if government does not challenge authorities over proposed cuts.

Though new libraries minister Rob Wilson has made robust promises about protecting the sector, Poole said the only way to wrestle libraries from terminal decline would be to allow councils to break the 2% ceiling for council-tax rises. Ministers are discussing the possibility of allowing councils to raise tax bills by more than 2% to plug the hole in care-service provision. At present, a rise of more than 2% must be passed by local referendum.

“We would like to see Theresa May consider libraries as a special case as well as the care sector,” Poole said. Such a move would, he believed, buy librarians time in which to make long-term savings without profoundly damaging provision: “These problems are all the result of a … programme of austerity that was rushed through. Asking people to make these sorts of savings in a year is unrealistic.”

Poole’s remarks follow news that a further three local authorities have joined Swindon in proposing significant cuts to library provision. Last week, Swindon council approved plans to close 10 of its 15 local libraries by August 2017. Under the planned closures, due to go before the council’s scrutiny committee on Monday night, Swindon will be left with only one library for every 40,000 people – less than a third of the European average of one library per 15,000 people.

“There are countries with library provision as low as that but they tend to be in wartorn areas,” Nick Poole said. “This is no way to be creating a society or economy that delivers for every person in the country.”

Wilson was reported to have had a “robust” meeting with Swindon council leaders last Monday as part of an early-intervention strategy aimed at ensuring the closures do not undermine its statutory duty to provide a sustainable library service. The minister has vowed to restore the sector and earlier this month announced a £4m innovation fund for projects to help disadvantaged communities. Swindon is among those authorities expected to bid before the 4 January deadline.

A statement from the culture ministry said: “Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service and we have powers to ensure they comply. The department is monitoring Swindon borough council’s changes to its library service, and … Rob Wilson met with the local MP and council’s library portfolio holder to discuss the council’s proposals.”

In Warrington, campaigners have vowed to fight plans to create “lockers” in place of five libraries planned for closure. Under the plan, borrowers will use lockers to collect loans. The culture ministry said it was “actively monitoring the situation”.

Among the five libraries considered for closure is the 168-year-old Warrington Central library, the first publicly funded library in the UK. Ten thousand local residents have signed an online petition to scrap the proposals.

The government is probing plans given the go-ahead in Lancashire to close 29 libraries, after local MPs lodged a complaint with the culture ministry. For ministers to intervene, the government department needs to receive a formal complaint that council provision is falling beneath that required by the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act.

A consultation to change the library service in Warrington has now closed, and DCMS is actively monitoring the situation.

Severe cuts are also proposed in Edinburgh and Denbighshire. The Welsh local authority is raiding the library funds in a bid to cut £10m from its budgets. This follows a raft of cuts to library services across the principality, which comes under the jurisdiction of the 1964 act.

In Scotland, which is not covered by the act, Edinburgh council has launched a review of its library service in order to save £2.8m. Under its plan, libraries will be amalgamated and buildings closed.

Library closures have already been announced in North Lanarkshire, while in September, children’s author Julia Donaldson wrote to Argyll and Bute council, to protest at the closure of school libraries in the region.