Long-awaited libraries cuts proposals now out - Swiss Cottage library implications

On 8th June Camden’s council cabinet will be taking the long awaited decision on the future of the library service. The report is now available here.

The report concludes with the options the cabinet may make to secure a £1.6m savings in the libraries budget. This includes £521,000 from a number of core savings including a reduction in book stock, the closure of the mobile library, a slight reduction in computers and a further cut in management costs. But the bulk of the savings - £1.079m – will come from one of three options the cabinet is asked to choose from:
Proposal A – Chalk Farm, Belsize and Heath libraries to close unless a non-council ‘delivery model’ (eg. volunteers/community trust) can be agreed, plus reductions at Highgate and Regents Park. All other libraries to see 10% reduction in opening hours. This ‘mixed model’ spreads the impact of the reductions between reductions in opening hours and fewer libraries.

Proposal B – Most impact on opening hours: a reduction in opening hours of 35% across all sites, and alternative delivery of service sought for Belsize and Chalk Farm libraries. Most of the saving in this proposal comes from reduction in staffing costs, whilst 11 of the 13 library buildings are retained in Council ownership and management

Proposal C – No change in opening hours but with seven libraries -Belsize, Camden Town, Chalk Farm, Heath, Highgate, Regents Park, West Hampstead – to close unless non-council delivery can be secured.

The cabinet is being asked by officers to approve proposal A, which suggests that the political decision has been made to go this route.

There is of course a lively debate about whether there are not other budget options available to the council which would mean cuts of this kind to front-line services could be avoided (see the alternative budget proposals put forward by Cllr Don Williams on behalf of the Conservative Group in March). For libraries, this could include shared back office services with neighbouring authorities.

From a Swiss Cottage perspective, a key issue is undoubtedly the difference between a 35% and a 10% reduction in opening hours at Swiss Cottage library, which is the borough’s central library. A massive reduction in opening hours in a library like this would really have been a tragedy. In the survey results, which have informed the report going to the cabinet, there is a clear tension between older users, for whom the number of libraries is perhaps more important than opening hours, and younger users, for whom longer opening hours in the evening and weekends are more important. There is also a difference between users who see libraries mainly in terms of book borrowing and others who use the IT facilities and see them more in terms of information centres etc.

A final point in the report on Swiss Cottage library is that the three storey building has a great deal of space that is not adequately used and therefore some work on potentially letting out some areas is to take place. The listed status of the building does limit what can be done of course, but it does seem to me from my knowledge of the building that there might be scope to rent out some space without any effect on the library provision.