Campaigners have called for Nottingham libraries to stay in the hands of “professionals” amid city council plans that could see volunteers run them.
A crucial decision on the future of the Aspley, Basford, Bilborough and Radford-Lenton libraries is set to be announced on Tuesday, 21st January.
This follows a private meeting of the Labour group that runs the city council on Thursday, where it was announced that three of the libraries would be changed to a volunteer-run service, whilst Radford-Lenton will have its service scaled down.
The ‘Save Our Services’ campaign group staged a protest outside the meeting at Nottingham City Council’s Loxley House headquarters, trying to present their message on the importance of libraries remaining in the council’s hands.
Gary Freeman, from Save Our Services, spoke about the importance on keeping libraries open and council-run.
“Libraries are centres for locals, they provide expert advice, a place for people who don’t have computers and support groups.
“Libraries need resources and should be run by professional library staff.
“They should be fully funded, council funded and no hours cut.”
This comes after Nottingham City Council announced that they plan to achieve library budget savings of £1.542 million over the next 2 years, saying this would inevitably result in some library closures and job losses.
Nottingham City Council’s leader, Councillor Neghat Khan, said the voluntary arrangement may lead to services “expanding” and that her authority would continue to own the library buildings.
Councillor Khan added: “By getting an agreement to secure voluntary organisations to take on the buildings and offering service provision, we are hoping to keep these buildings open and maintain them as community assets.
“These voluntary organisations would have access to funding the council doesn’t, which could be used to repair, improve and maintain these buildings, as well as the potential to increase and broaden services currently on offer.”
