Consultation opens on plans to slash library opening hours by 25%

A public consultation on proposals to cut library opening hours by 25% in a bid to save money, has opened today (16 February).

The move would lead to a restructuring of library services with staff redundancies, but the reduced hours would result in Conwy Council clawing back £157,126 annually.

A council report has revealed that, if the cuts were made, no savings would be made until 2025/26 because of the cost of making redundancies and paying off staff.

The local authority is seeking to cut costs as it faces a £25m budget black hole. The Welsh Government announced in December that it will receive the joint lowest percentage rise in Wales, together with Gwynedd, of its annual local government settlement, an increase of just 2%.

The Council previously cut library opening hours by 20% in 2013.

Closure

Conwy’s Library Service is asking the public for their opinions on options based around reducing opening hours to prevent the closure of any libraries, and to help the service plan for the future.

Cllr Aaron Wynne, Cabinet Member for Culture & Leisure, said: “We’re faced with the difficult choice of reducing opening hours across all libraries or to close a number of sites.

“We hope that if financial circumstances improve we can reinstate any lost hours, whereas once a library building closes it’s very difficult to re-open it.

“With that in mind, we’re putting forward options for the public to consider, based around reducing opening hours to prevent the closure of any libraries, and to help the service plan for the future.”

Summer

The consultation runs for six weeks and councillors will announce a decision in June before any changes would be introduced later in the summer.

Information on the plans and the survey is available on the Conwy website here