Councillors vote to save Colehill library... for now
2:00pm Thursday 8 December 2011
Parish councillors voted seven to four to raise the parish precept and make £10,500 to keep the community library open when Dorset County Council funding is withdrawn next year.
Now a library management committee must be set up to submit a business plan and organise some 130 volunteers.
The “overwhelming majority” of residents supported the move in a recent survey, Colehill Parish Council vice-chairman Susan Davies said. Cllr Davies said: “The most heartening thing was the responses of some very elderly people. These are individuals who can ill afford to pay any extra and are living on a pension, but said ‘I will pay any price, it’s that important to me’.”
But Derek Henderson, Friends of Colehill Library chairman, says that a lot of work still needs to be done following Tuesday’s decision. “It all remains to be seen but for all the complications it may be a lesser service,” he said.
Concerns include book deliveries dropping to once a week and having a professional librarian for just three hours a week.
“We receive at least 100 books under the online reservation scheme,” Mr Henderson said. They all have to be processed. If you reduce the delivery they’ll be coming in as a huge wave, and the figure is likely to go up as the book stock decreases.” He added: “We go on singing the same sort of tune. This at least keeps the prospect alive for retaining the library.”
Hope remains for library supporters
12:30pm Monday 28 November 2011
Supporters of nine threatened Libraries in Dorset have been given a ray of hope by a parliamentary review into library closures.
Dorset County Council has agreed to withdraw core funding to libraries at Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Corfe Castle, Colehill, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool and it will be up to local communities to keep the facilities running.
However, it has now been announced that the Culture, Media and Sport select committee – a cross party committee of MPs – is to hold an inquiry into library closures that will look at, among other things, the Secretary of States power to intervene.
Acting chairman of Ad Lib (The Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) Tim Lee said: “For the past year, ever since Dorset County Council began the squeeze on its libraries, we have been calling for the minister responsible to step in and save them. The present law requires the secretary of state for culture to ensure that library authorities provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient service’. But he has done nothing to halt the attack on libraries not only in Dorset but across the country. Now, at long last, the parliamentary committee which oversees his department has taken action. It has called for a review of the way in which the minister exercises his powers to safeguard libraries.”
Ad Lib is now urging supporters of Dorset’s threatened libraries to have their say in the inquiry by emailing cmsev@parliament.uk to demand that the law is strengthened to protect people in rural areas.
Charmouth: Library fight will continue say AdLib campaigners
11:00am Wednesday 16 November 2011
Three councillors abstained from voting, including Marshwood Vale member Col Geoff Brierley, who is also a member of the Friends of Charmouth Library. In his speech he suggested that the support package – which is currently guaranteed for only three years – should be improved.
The Friends of Charmouth Library have admitted that although it is not an ‘attractive prospect’, they will continue regardless with plans to set up a community-managed facility. {Chariman] Mrs Robinson said: “It’s not an attractive prospect and shows a total lack of vision and understanding from DCC but we will still be attempting to make Charmouth library into a useful community hub based on an excellent library and to keep it that way into the future.”
But there are fears the community-run libraries could be left on their own once the three-year support package expires. “This means that the Friends and local councils of the nine libraries could put a lot of money and effort into improving their libraries and keeping them going only to find in three years’ time that they have no library management system, no new books, no refreshed stock and no professional help,” said Mrs Robinson. “What’s more, community libraries are to be excluded from any modernisation of the library service. “We are really going to be left out on our own.”
Keep up to date with progress in Charmouth on the new website www.charmouthvillagelibrary.org.uk
Dorset library campaigners cheered by Somerset court ruling
4:30pm Thursday 17 November 2011
Dorset library campaigners say they are ‘enormously cheered’ after a High Court ruling preventing neighbouring county Somerset from closing 10 of its libraries. The ruling yesterday means that two local authorities – Somerset County Council and Gloucestershire County Council – will have to go back to the drawing board regarding the cutting of library services. A judge in London quashed closure decisions made by the councils following a successful challenge by residents. The councils will have to reconsider their decisions after they were declared ‘unlawful’ by Judge McKenna, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, because they failed to comply with ‘public sector equality duties’.
In Dorset there is no current legal action by campaigning group AdLib but a spokesman said it was still considering it after seeking detailed legal advice.
Graham Lee, the chairman of AdLib, said the judge’s decision that Somerset County Council needed to pay more attention to the needs of dependent people meant that the decision to cease funding to nine libraries in Dorset was ‘rushed and ill-considered’. He said: “The parts of Dorset where most of the threatened nine libraries are located is much more rural than many parts of Somerset.”
MP urges councils to merge services
1:00pm Tuesday 15 November 2011
Bournemouth and Poole councils must merge their services and chief officer teams to safeguard frontline services. That’s the view of Bournemouth East MP, Tobias Ellwood, who is today calling on council bosses in both towns to throw their lot in with each other. And he says with Bournemouth’s chief executive, Pam Donnellan, retiring in a matter of months, now is the right time to do it.
He told the Daily Echo: “In the current economic climate we can no longer afford to continue running duplicate services and identical office structures.” He added: “Closer collaboration could lead to huge savings and protection of frontline services or even saving them from closure.”
All councils are under massive pressure from central government to slash their budgets – which means either shedding staff or cutting services. Neighbouring Bournemouth and Poole are ‘standalone’ unitary authorities providing all services, including education, children’s and adult services, libraries, rubbish collection and car parking. Any move to combine services – or go further and fully merge – has always been hugely controversial and strongly resisted.
But Mr Ellwood says he is not advocating a full merger. Both councils would retain their own elected councillors and “political integrity.” He said residents would not notice any difference to their services.
Council leader, Cllr Peter Charon said: “My door is always open to ideas and I am very happy to have a debate about this. “But we have done pretty well in making around £32m-worth of savings in the four years and we’re ahead of the game. We feel we need a chief executive who is 100 per cent dedicated to Bournemouth right now but I am more than willing to respond to ideas.” He said there was a constant dialogue with other councils to see how they could co-operate.
But Mr Ellwood’s proposal is opposed by his fellow Bournemouth MP Conor Burns. He said: “I don’t think it’s the business of MPs to tell local councils how to manage their affairs. It’s not a top down thing. “In any case Bournemouth and Poole councils are at different stages and face different challenges. Bournemouth has done extremely well in making savings and I would not want that progress to be contaminated.”
Dorset library campaigners will fight on
2:00pm Friday 11 November 2011
A highly-charged Dorset County Council meeting yesterday saw councillors vote for a second time to take away core funding from nine of the county’s 34 libraries.
Campaigners now say they will take the issue to the Secretary of State.
In July, the proposal to withdraw funding was carried by just one vote at a meeting. It was put back on the agenda following a motion from the Liberal Democrat group – the first standing order of its kind to be used in 20 years.
The vote was split down party lines with 25 Conservative councillors voting against the motion to keep the libraries funded and 14 Lib Dem and Labour councillors voting for it. Three councillors abstained from voting.
Cabinet member Councillor Hilary Cox said residents would ‘step up to the plate’ and volunteer to run the libraries. She said: “I think this gives villagers a great opportunity. I’m voting against the motion. I have great faith in the residents of Dorset.”
Lib Dem leader Coun Jan Dover said the council could afford to keep funding the libraries. She suggested that some of the £28.1million the council had recovered from Icelandic banks that collapsed in 2008 could now be used for library funding. She added: “Nearly £200,000 has already been spent on the transfer of these nine libraries. Chairman, you couldn’t make it up. Who said that the transfer of the nine libraries in these communities would save money?”
Many councillors chose to speak during the two hour debate on libraries.
Council leader Angus Campbell said: “This is a difficult decision we are facing. In my opinion, the decision has been made. I think we will all agree that savings have to be made. This is a serious situation. I don’t believe it would be a good forward decision to try to rescind what is underway. I will vote against the motion.”
Councillor David Milsted, who seconded the motion, said: “This isn’t community empowerment. This will end up being ‘dump and run’.”
Ad Lib campaigners urged councillors to keep all libraries open by making cuts across the service. They gathered outside County Hall with placards before the meeting and chanted ‘Save our libraries’.
Hazel Robinson, who heads the library friends at Charmouth, addressed the meeting and said there was ‘an enormous appetite to keep the nine libraries open somehow’. She added: “But we don’t know if we can, as no-one knows how transferring the libraries is actually going to work. If no-one knows how it’s all going to work and when, how on earth do they know how much, if anything, will be saved?”
Speaking after the meeting, Ad Lib campaigners and library users said they were ‘upset’ and ‘disappointed'.
Campaigners said they would be arranging a meeting with Dorset MPs and taking the decision to the Secretary of State. Graham Lee, chairman of Ad Lib, said: “We’re not down and out and we’re not giving up.”
Council brought to book over Dorset's libraries
5:00pm Thursday 10 November 2011
Campaigner Hazel Robinson, of the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries, known as Ad Lib, said ... “Their documents admit that ‘operational details are yet to be clarified’.”
Meanwhile, Ad Lib vice-chairman Tim Lee believes councillors were not given the full facts at the July meeting. He said: “We have been assured by the professor of statistics at Bath University that the claim that more than half the people in Dorset supported the council’s proposed cuts is wrong. “In fact, a greater number of people who filled in the questionnaire on the future of Dorset’s libraries wanted them all kept open.”
Vote fails to save Dorset library funding
1:01pm Thursday 10 November 2011
A last ditch bid to save nine Dorset libraries has failed. Dorset county councillors have voted against a motion that would stop the libraries from having their county funding withdrawn.
The motion, proposed by the Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Jan Dover, was backed by 14 councillors and voted against by 25 councillors at a Dorset County Council meeting. Three councillors abstained.
Library campaigners filled the public gallery of the council chamber and said they were ‘disappointed’ after the vote was taken.
The affected libraries include Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Portland Underhill and Puddletown.
Civic leaders vote again for future of Dorset's libraries
12:30pm Thursday 10 November 2011
Supporters of Dorset’s nine threatened Libraries will be hoping for a stay of execution today as civic leaders vote for the second time on the service’s future. However, they may have other options if July’s decision can be overturned at what is anticipated to be a highly-charged meeting this morning.
Campaigner Hazel Robinson, of the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries, known as Ad Lib, said: “Only within the last few days have our communities finally been given some hint of what the council will offer us if we take over the running of our libraries. “However, they have not told us enough for us to be able to make proper plans.”
Charmouth: Residents in last ditch attempt to save library
12:00pm Thursday 10 November 2011
Hazel Robinson, chairman of the Charmouth group [Friends of Charmouth Library], will be speaking at the meeting. She said: “I think the Conservatives have set their faith against it and although they base their arguments on what has turned out to be completely wrong information, I don’t think they will admit that and go back on it. We just have to hope that they will listen to what we have to say, have an open mind, and act democratically. If the council refuses to change its mind, the nine libraries will be removed from the council network next year."
“Residents want things to stay as they are of course, but they like our ideas to make more use of the building,” said Mrs Robinson. Proposed uses for the building include storytelling sessions for pre-school children, and working with the WRVS and Dorset POPP to run Wayfinders, a scheme for befriending isolated people. Mrs Robinson said: “I think we should undertake these initiatives anyway because we still want to make more use of that building.”
Top literary figures appeal to council over Dorset's threatened libraries
10:00am Tuesday 8 November 2011
Two leading Dorset writers have thrown their weight behind Dorset’s threatened Libraries as campaigners prepare to fight their cause again. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Minette Walters have written to Dorset County Council asking them to save nine libraries faced with losing funding ahead of a crunch meeting this week.
Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, who is a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, wrote: “I have it from the very top of the party that if savings can be achieved without the loss of libraries, nobody will be happier than they. “The fact that both Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs in Dorset support the movement to save the county’s libraries is surely a powerful argument for the truth of this.”
Mrs Walters said: “Bearing in mind how close the vote was and how important community meeting places are to rural dwellers, particularly the elderly and infirm who do not find it easy to travel to towns, can I beg you and your colleagues to think very hard before you condemn your constituents to a life without one of the true great pleasures – a book.’
Chairman of Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) Graham Lee said his organisation was encouraged by the valuable support from the two authors.
Dorset County Council under fire after Dorchester library investigation
1:00pm Saturday 5 November 2011
Auditors KPMG launched an investigation earlier in the year after receiving formal complaints over West Dorset District Council’s decision to relocate its offices to the Charles Street development as well as Dorset County Council’s decision to move the [Dorchester] library to the same block in the development.
The investigation into the district council is ongoing but KPMG rebuked the county council over the move. The auditors deemed that the authority failed to examine alternative sites that could offer better value for money and for not carrying out a proper assessment of the needs of the library service across Dorset before committing £5million for a new building in Dorchester.
Library campaigner Mike Chaney, chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library and a member of the Ad Lib (Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) group, said: “It is just typical bulldozing through of a pet project. It is costing the whole of Dorset a lot of money and, quite frankly, you could well argue that we have lost nine libraries to buy one. It’s unnecessary and thinking big without taking more time to think about the consequences.”
In the conclusion to the report by KMPG it stated that, while concerns had been raised with the council, there was no basis to exercise its formal audit powers. It adds: ‘The council should ensure that significant decisions (such as this capital investment) are demonstrably made in light of a full range of options and alternatives and the council’s agreed service or corporate strategies’.
Would you pay £3.30 to save library?
7:00am Thursday 20 October 2011
It [Colehill Library] would cost around £10,000 a year to run if opening hours remained the same, and 40 people would need to volunteer as librarians, administrators and managers.
Colehill Parish Council Deputy Chairman, Councillor Susan Davies, said: “Working that out with the number of households, which is about 3,000, it would mean an annual increase in precept per household of around about £3.50. But before we make a decision on that, we feel it’s very important that the community is given the opportunity to express their opinion.”
Under the county council’s plans, a community library would have access to the book supply and training courses for volunteers.
Lifeline thrown to Dorset's libraries
1:00pm Friday 14 October 2011
Fresh hope has been given to Dorset’s nine threatened Libraries after Dorset County Council agreed to have a second vote on the future of the service.
Leader of the Liberal Democrat group of councillors Janet Dover has overseen a campaign to get the issue back on the agenda at the full council meeting on November 10. Coun Dover has used council procedures that allow the vote to be retaken after she submitted an application signed by ten fellow councillors, all members of her party.
Coun Dover said: “The public have been asking about the possibility of a second vote ever since the first was lost by one vote and they believe the importance of the library service in Dorset wasn’t recognised. This gives an opportunity for those councillors who did not vote for option D (retaining funding to all 34 libraries) to think again.
Coun Dover added that she had worked out the cost of transferring the running of the nine libraries would cancel out any savings. She added that she would be asking council leader Angus Campbell for the vote at the meeting to be a free vote and a recorded vote.
Chairman of the Ad Lib (Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries) campaign group Graham Lee welcomed the news. He said: “It is welcome that they are going to have another look at it. We have been quietly trying to persuade various county council members that the decision was so close there was a need to look at it again and we hope that common sense will prevail.”
Chief executive of Dorset County Council David Jenkins confirmed the decision on the libraries will be reconsidered. He said: “I can confirm that I have today received a notice of motion signed by ten members of the county council. The motion asks that the decision made by councillors at their last meeting on July 21 about the Dorset Library Service should be rescinded, and that ‘option D,’ set out in reports to that meeting, should instead be adopted.”
Charmouth: Residents warned to fund, staff and use or lose library
11:30am Thursday 13 October 2011
The Friends [of Charmouth Library Committee] said: “The library will close unless we fund and staff if ourselves. The ad hoc Friends of Charmouth Library Committee hopes to make the building of far more use in the future but needs to be sure that this is what residents want. We also need to elect a new Friends Committee, recruit more Friends and volunteers and know that there will be sufficient income to sustain running costs of around £4,500 a year.”
Group chairman Hazel Robinson said Ad Lib is still considering legal action and members are in talks with Dorset Library Service (DLS) to establish what the revised community offer includes. A list of over 80 questions has been sent to DLS.
Mrs Robinson said: “The nine libraries set to become community run or to close completely are particularly concerned by the fact that they will not be statutory. This means that if DLS decide to withdraw their support package – currently guaranteed for only three years – community libraries could be under threat again. This is particularly worrying since our local councils and supporters could by then have invested time and money only to find that, without book circulation, library management systems and professional help, they could no longer continue to keep their libraries going.”
The Charmouth group has produced a questionnaire for residents, available from the library and the hallway of the parish council offices at The Elms, The Street.
“Depending on the results of the questionnaire, Charmouth Parish Council and Friends will know if there is sufficient enthusiasm to continue to work towards a community library for the future or whether, through lack of support, it will close next year, probably forever,” said Mrs Robinson.
Library work to start as soon as Kelly's Kitchen closes
2:00pm Monday 3 October 2011
Dorset County Council wants to redevelop the premises at Christchurch Library to increase the size of the library, incorporating the area of the building currently occupied by Kelly’s Kitchen.
They are also planning on relocating the adult learning centre in Christchurch – currently at the former Magistrates Court in Bargates to the building.
The County Council’s has also appointed their main contractor, Morgan Sindall, who has already started work on the design. Building work is due to start in March 2012 and the plan is to complete the project by February 2013.
Angus Campbell, county council leader and cabinet member for community services, said: “This is a tremendously important project for the people of Christchurch. The library is one of the busiest in Dorset, with 220,000 visitors in 2010/11.
Libraries are vibrant community buildings, providing leisure and learning opportunities for people of all ages. The funding to do this necessary work is in place.
This project is something that will give all current residents of Christchurch, and future generations, a much improved quality of library service. The relocation of the adult learning centre will make even better use of the building.”
Kelly’s Kitchen loses battle over premises
3:00pm Saturday 1 October 2011
Terry Kelly [Kelly's Kitchen] said: “To prove their intention to us the county council have signed an undertaking to say that they will proceed with this project, and say they have the funds in place to commence work when we give them possession on March 1, 2012. And they will complete the project and open the extended library in spring 2013."
We have courage and determination
10:00am Saturday 30 July 2011
LETTER from Angus Campbell Leader of Dorset County Council
I would like to respond to Mike Chaney’s letter (“Our leaders just lost their nerve”) in the Echo on July 26, about the county council’s decision on the future of our library service.
First, the decision to withdraw funding from nine small libraries does not necessarily mean they will close. We want to work with local people in those areas to keep the libraries open as independent, community-run facilities. We are proposing to provide books, computers, self-service facilities and staffing expertise to support all nine library buildings – which could then also be opened up for other public uses. The value of this support would be over £5,000 in each case.
Second, councillors were not fed ‘scare stories’ about possible future cuts to council funding. Those cuts are already a reality. Put simply, by 2013/14 our budget will have to be reduced by more than £55m per year, year on year, whatever further cuts may be demanded of us. This country’s economic recovery will take far longer than that. Add to that the certainty of inflation and the growing demand for adult social care, and one gets an idea of the problems to come. We must ensure that the library service is sustainable and I believe retaining all 34 libraries would have seriously damaged that approach, forcing us drastically to cut spending on staff and books. This would weaken the service across the board, threaten its effectiveness for all Dorset library users and leave it vulnerable to further spending reductions in years to come.
Finally we come to the extraordinary accusation that councillors lost their nerve. How simple it would have been to take the easy path, ignore the problem, and curry favour and good headlines. Yet councillors showed courage and determination in voting for a proposal which was not necessarily popular, but which they felt was the right decision for the future of the library service and those it serves.
Anguish over closure of Colehill library
11:30am Thursday 28 July 2011
Losing Colehill Library after 37 years feels like the death of a family member to residents, says the chairman of its Friends group. Since last week’s decision by Dorset County Council to pull the library’s funding, the “devastated” community is torn between mixed emotions of anger, disbelief and puzzlement, Derek Henderson said.
He says it “defies logic” to cut off the library, in Middlehill Road, when issues are increasing, classes of schoolchildren visit regularly and the Friends group holds monthly talks.
“The prospect for volunteers to run Colehill library is very thin indeed,” Mr Henderson said. All those who have expressed interest most recently have said they wish to ‘help in anyway possible’ but they feel unable to be responsible for organising, financing and managing the provision of their library. It is a necessary public service and in order to meet the reasonable expectations of the local community requires professionally competent staff.”
In contrast, West Moors library has been saved – even though it is 1.9 miles from Ferndown library and Colehill residents will have to travel to get books from Wimborne library.
West Dorset: Council vote to axe funding for nine libraries
11:00am Thursday 28 July 2011
There was good and bad news for West Dorset after the Dorset County Council voted to axe funding for nine of its 34 libraries.
Funding for Charmouth and Burton Bradstock has been withdrawn but Beaminster will carry on as it has been partly staffed by volunteers and partly by a professional librarian.
However, campaigners who made the case for Beaminster are happy they will be there to serve their community, though it doesn’t feel like a celebration, they say.
Volunteer Jennifer Duncan, who worked on the case to save the town’s library said: “I think it is absolutely right that Beaminster should have been saved because there are so many people here who would have been penalised by not being able to get to the library. We are happy to know that we are safe but there are an awful lot of people left who don’t have that right any more.
“Charmouth were in the same position as us, maybe not quite so many and maybe a little nearer Bridport or Lyme. It is just a great pity they are not going to be saved and a great pity councillors didn’t look at option D – where everybody made savings – in more detail before this.”
Ms Duncan added that the library was used on an almost daily basis by the elderly giving them somewhere to go – and that would be true of all communities.
Bob Hynds, who headed the working group for Burton Bradstock’s library, said nothing would change because the village could afford to take on the library without funding from the county council. It has had since 2007 to get established as a community library after the last round of library cuts. He said: “We are not going because we can afford the rental terms. We have the funds to run it as a community library but the other eight are not so well placed. We have built up the volunteers and the funding by a sub from the Friends of Burton Library and there are about 160 of us.” The building is on a 99-year peppercorn lease and the community has to meet the £2,500 annual running costs.
...
Coun Ronald Coatsworth pleaded to keep all the libraries open saying he was outraged at the way the figures from the consultation were interpreted. He said: “We have heard of lies, damn lies and statistics and it seemed to me that here was another case of distorted figures being used as a justification for a particular course of action which had been pre-determined. They are discriminatory, treating different groups in different ways and have no place in the Dorset I represent.”
Charmouth: Campaigners' positive outlook after library is axed
10:30am Wednesday 27 July 2011
Campaigners in Charmouth have vowed to look positively to the future after their bid to save the village library was foiled by a single vote.
After months of debate and protests on the future of Dorset’s libraries, the final decision came down to the last vote at a meeting of Dorset County Council. Councillors were asked to vote on two proposals for the future of Dorset’s library service in a bid to save £800,000. The first proposal, known as Option B, involved withdrawing core funding to nine of the county’s 34 libraries while the second, Option D, proposed making cuts across the whole service to achieve the saving and retain all of the libraries. When members went to vote on the two options, the decision was in the balance until council chairman John Wilson cast the last vote to see Option B win by 21 votes to 21. The vote means funding has been withdrawn from Charmouth library and eight others – Burton Bradstock, Chickerell, Corfe Castle, Colehill, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool.
There is better news for Lyme Regis and Beaminster libraries, which have both been spared the axe.
Hazel Robinson, chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, was among those at County Hall last Thursday. She said library users in Charmouth need not be afraid that it will close overnight. “We have until September 2012 to come up with a community scheme to keep the library open and to find the funds and volunteers, which will be necessary,” she said. “Though it’s difficult at the moment, we have to try to look at this positively. In the next few weeks, in co-operation with the parish council, we shall be asking Charmouth residents for their wish lists. We must look at this decision as our chance to make the library into a real social hub for the village in a way that has not been possible in the past. Unless we can do this and unless there is sufficient support, the library will close forever.”
Dorset County Council said it would offer support worth £5,000 to the affected communities.
Talks will now take place with the nine affected communities about the community take-over before the changes are implemented next year.
The council is proposing to provide books, computers, self-service facilities and staffing expertise to support the communities if they want to take over responsibility for their library building – valued at more than £5,000 for each library.
Council leader Angus Campbell said: “This was not an easy decision. We know that libraries are very important to many people. We have improved the community offer and increased the number of libraries to be retained by the council. We must ensure that the library service is sustainable into the future and I believe retaining all 34 libraries would have seriously damaged that approach – bleeding the service dry for a short-term fix.”
Who's a'feared? Our councillors
10:00am Tuesday 26 July 2011
LETTER from Mike Chaney, chairman of the Friends of Puddletown library and spokesman of Ad Lib (the association of friends of Dorset libraries)
Last Thursday, Dorset’s county councillors voted by a whisker for a cut in funding which will, in time, lead to the loss of small libraries across the whole county.
Everyone knows the county council is strapped for money but it wasn’t to save money that my village and eight other mainly rural communities will lose their libraries and their valued librarians.
The reason for their loss is quite simply funk. Our councillors lost their nerve.
These libraries could have been saved at no extra cost. Cutting off their funding won’t save an extra penny. There was a choice that would have achieved all the necessary economies and saved the libraries.
But by 21 votes to 20 our craven councillors chose to believe the scare stories they were all being told. They voted for closure because of a warning that there may be more cuts to come. Not that there will be: just that there might be.
Twenty years ago, when I worked at County Hall, every letter the council sent out bore the county’s coat of arms – and its defiant motto “Who’s a’feared?” I can see why the council now has different headed paper. Now it’s in the hands of people who have lost that old fighting spirit. Our leaders now are like fearsome children, frightened of shadows.
Future unclear for Dorset's heartbroken library campaigners
10:00am Saturday 23 July 2011
Heartbroken campaigners who lost their fight to save nine rural libraries say the future of the service in their villages is now unclear.
After months of debates and protests on the future of Dorset’s libraries, the final decision whether to continue funding the service in Colehill, Corfe Castle, Wool and six other Dorset villages came down to the final vote at a meeting of Dorset County Council on Thursday.
The Association for Dorset Libraries (Ad lib) has revealed it may now seek a judicial view, although there are no signs supporters of the axed libraries will follow in the footsteps of campaigners in Brent, London, who have launched the first High Court challenge against library closures.
Campaigners for the libraries say they need to let the decision sink in before deciding what course of action to take, amid fears there may not be enough support to take up the county council’s offer to back community-run services instead.
Dorset County Councillor Janet Dover, who was heavily involved in the fight for Colehill Library, said: “We’re all very upset and quite devastated. Funding for the community-run service stops in April so we will be working together to see if there is anyway forward to keep it open. It’s just so tragic. Two months ago the staff at the library won an award for customer service and we have a high lending rate.”
At the packed meeting in county hall, councillors were asked to vote on two proposals for the future of Dorset’s library service in a bid to save £800,000. The decision was in the balance until council chairman John Wilson cast the last vote to see Option B win by 21 votes to 21, which means the county council will no longer fund the three libraries.
Leader of the county council Cllr Angus Campbell, said: “We must ensure that the library service is sustainable in the future and I believe retaining all 34 libraries would have seriously damaged that approach, bleeding the service dry for a short-term fix. Local government funding has undergone a seismic shift and we must adapt to that.”
Library decision: Dorset supporters vow to continue fighting
11:30am Friday 22 July 2011
Supporters of Dorset’s libraries vowed to continue their fight but have raised fears for the future of their community facilities.
Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s spokesman for equality, diversity and social cohesion Kate Wheller was at the meeting to fight the case of Portland Underhill Library. After the vote she said: “I think Underhill Library’s days are numbered. I will do everything I can to support them but I’m really worried about them.”
Chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library Mike Chaney said there were a committed group of local residents who would be looking into the council’s offer to take up the library but it required significant contributions both in terms of volunteer time and money. He said: “We will need at least twice as many volunteers as we have got already, possibly three times and on top of them we have got to find a sum of money.”
Fellow Puddletown Library supporter and local vicar Roy Bennett added: “We need to be a little bit clearer about what the county council is offering as it is by no means clear.”
David Smith, who turned up to the protest and meeting with a group of supporters for Wool library, said: “The community will have to look at the offer and decide whether it can run with it. It could well end in the closure route.”
In the build up to the meeting the Ad Lib group refused to rule out a legal challenge to any decision to withdraw funding to libraries following legal victories on the issue in other areas of the country.
Ad Lib chairman Graham Lee said after the meeting: “We are obviously very disappointed with the decision but it is something that we will need to reflect on.”
Library decision: Single vote means nine libraries will close
11:30am Friday 22 July 2011
Campaigners were left ‘bitterly disappointed’ after their bid to save nine libraries was foiled by a single vote. After months of debates and protests on the future of Dorset’s libraries, the final decision came down to the final vote at a meeting of Dorset County Council.
Supporters of the Ad Lib (Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) were on the steps of County Hall to make their views heard ahead of the meeting in a packed council chamber.
Councillors were asked to vote on two proposals for the future of Dorset’s library service in a bid to save £800,000.
The first proposal, known as Option B, involved withdrawing core funding to nine of the county’s 34 libraries while the second, Option D, proposed making cuts across the service to achieve the saving and retain all of the libraries.
The nine libraries faced with the loss of funding are at Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Corfe Castle, Colehill, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool.
Two members of Ad Lib, which has been campaigning for the retention of all 34 libraries, addressed councillors at the meeting and urged them to adopt Option D.
Mike Chaney, chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library, told members that the same savings could be achieved through both options and questioned why council officers were recommending Option B, which involved losing libraries from the core network. He said: “We are led to the conclusion that the underlying reason for this relentless drive to get shot of libraries is because the managers in Dorset believe that only big is beautiful. They just don't like small libraries yet, as you have seen this morning, the people that use them do.”
Liz Callister, from the Friends of Crossways Libary group, added: “We do not need to decimate the service to make the savings so vote for common sense.”
Council leader Angus Campbell insisted that the vote would be a free vote and members of his Conservative party, which held the majority on the council, had not been given any directive on which way they would vote.
The council’s cabinet member for corporate resources Spencer Flower, who like Coun Campbell indicated he would be voting for Option B, stressed that those libraries that would lose funding would still receive support from the council so the community could take on the facility. He said: “I'm not going to vote for closing the libraries, I’m going to vote for keeping the libraries open, all be it in a different way. We have to accept the fact that we have to live within our means.”
When members went to the vote on the two options, the decision was in the balance until council chairman John Wilson cast the last vote to see Option B win by 21 votes to 21.
Following the decision Mr Chaney said: “Our reaction is bitter disappointment. To get so near and have it dashed from our lips by just one vote is gutting.”
BREAKING NEWS: Nine libraries to be axed across Dorset
5:02pm Thursday 21 July 2011
Nine Libraries across Dorset are to be axed.
County Councillors agreed by just one vote–21 to 20– to press ahead with plans to keep 25 libraries open but hand over nine to the community to run.
Libraries in Chickerell, Underhill on Portland, Puddletown, Wool, Burton Bradstock and Charmouth all face closure unless they are taken over by community groups.
Author Santa Montefiore backs Dorset libraries campaign
2:00pm Thursday 21 July 2011
Campaigners preparing to fight for Dorset’s Libraries today have received support from an author schooled in the county. Romantic fiction writer Santa Montefiore has lent her support to the Ad Lib (Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) as councillors vote on the future of the library service.
Members of Dorset County Council will vote on whether to withdraw funding to nine libraries in a bid to save £800,000 or retain all 34 of the county’s libraries and make savings through cuts across the service.
Ad Lib members will be protesting before the full council meeting today and speaking at the meeting to call for the retention of the library network.
Former Sherborne School for Girls pupil Ms Montefiore, whose novels include The Affair and The Italian Matchmaker, has just offered late support for Ad Lib campaigners with a letter to Dorset County Council leader Angus Campbell. She wrote: “It’s appalling that such a large number of libraries are under threat of closure, not only because it will rob locals of their access to books, but that it will also rob the community of a tranquil place to study, read and attend events that bring people together in an increasingly isolating world. Times are hard, I think it’s a human right that people should be given the means to escape the dreariness by reading the wonderful books available in libraries. I do hope a solution can be found before these vital oases are lost.”
Meanwhile, more high profile Tories have backed a campaign to spare libraries from the threat of closure.
West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin and Conservative peer Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, better known as Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, have both offered their support for the Ad Lib campaign.
Tory MP for South Dorset Richard Drax and the Conservative North Dorset MP Bob Walter have also now added their support for the library campaigners. Mr Drax has penned a letter to Dorset County Councils cabinet member for community services Hilary Cox, asking her to consider the proposal that would see all libraries retained. In an email to Ad Lib he said: “As you know, I too am concerned about this issue, believing that libraries are an integral part of our community and should be retained wherever possible.” In a letter to Dorset County Council leader Angus Campbell, Mr Walter also voiced his support for the proposal that would see all 34 libraries retained.
Ad Lib spokesman Mike Chaney said members of his group were confident the vote on the future of libraries would be a free vote, so councillors would not be instructed to vote along party lines. He said he hoped the opinions expressed by the prominent local politicians offered some food for thought for the members ahead of Thursday’s meeting. Mr Chaney said: “It’s one more bit of ammunition for what we hope will be a straightforward fight this week. It’s a free vote so we hope the example of the MPs will persuade anybody who needs to be persuaded that saving the libraries is the best option, especially as it doesn’t cost any more money.”
The nine libraries that could lose funding as a result of Thursday’s vote are Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Colehill, Corfe Castle, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool.
Last attempt at protest for Dorset library campaigners
1:00pm Wednesday 20 July 2011
Campaigners are preparing a last-ditch protest against library closures as councillors go to the vote tomorrow.
Nine of the county’s 34 Libraries could lose funding from Dorset County Council as the authority seeks to save £800,000.
The full council meeting will see the final decision after months of campaigning from library supporters with members set to decide between two options.
The first proposal, which has been backed by council officers, will see the council withdraw its core funding to nine libraries, which will then be offered support to run themselves as community facilities.
The alternative proposal, supported by the library campaign group Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries), involves retaining all 34 libraries and making cuts across the service to achieve the savings target.
Ad Lib campaigners will be taking to the steps of County Hall ahead of the meeting and two members will address councillors before the vote.
The group says it is encouraged by a suggestion that the decision will be a free vote, rather than see councillors voting according to party directions. Chairman Graham Lee said: “We are hugely encouraged by the news that there will be a free vote. We have known throughout this long fight that several Conservative councillors are unhappy about the loss of these smaller libraries. They didn’t want the county’s library service to put all its eggs into the basket of the bigger town’s libraries. Now we know they’ll be able to follow their consciences and vote with their hearts we hope we can save the threatened libraries.”
The nine libraries that face losing funding are Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Colehill, Corfe Castle, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool.
Chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library, Mike Chaney, who will be one of the two Ad Lib speakers at the meeting, was also encouraged by the prospect of a free vote. He said: “It gives us the only hope we have got really because there is an official recommendation that we lose nine libraries. But quite a number of the administration at County Hall have told us that they are unhappy with the idea of closing libraries and this gives them a chance to break ranks.”
Mr Chaney said he did not want to consider the future for Puddletown library if the vote goes against Ad Lib tomorrow.
Dorset County Council’s head of community services claims Ad Lib is being ‘misleading’ by claiming the authority wants to get rid of nine libraries. Paul Leivers said: “It is misleading for AdLib to say that council bosses want to get rid of nine libraries.
“A careful and detailed analysis has been undertaken, and two options have been put forward by the cabinet for consideration at Thursday’s meeting of the county council. One is to retain libraries but with a significant reduction in expenditure, for example, on the book fund and on staff. The other option is to consolidate into a smaller number of retained libraries while encouraging local communities, with the support of the county council, to take on responsibility for others. This option would also involve a reduction in expenditure on the book fund and on staff.”
D-Day for nine of Dorset's libraries
10:20am Wednesday 20 July 2011
Campaigners trying to save Dorset’s libraries will return to the council chamber tomorrow as members debate proposals to withdraw funding from the service.
It is D-Day for nine of the county’s libraries, which face closure under Dorset County Council’s budget cuts. The council will be asked to consider two options which have been recommended by the cabinet.
The first is to withdraw funding for nine libraries – Colehill, Wool, Corfe Castle, Stalbridge, Portland Underhill, Charmouth, Burton Bradstock, Chickerell and Puddletown – and retain 25 core libraries. This would be supported by a resources fund of £530,000, a mobile library provision and access to a range of online resources and services.
The second proposal is to keep all the libraries open, keeping a resources fund of £434,000, mobile library provision and online resources.
Both options include a reduction in book fund, management and support staff as the introduction of income options. The second option would involve a larger reduction in book fund.
Graham Lee, chairman of the Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries (ADLIB), said he hopes residents will attend the meeting to express their views. “Four years ago the council decided not to follow the recommendation to close 13 libraries and we are hoping this time they will act similarly. We have regard for the Dorset Library Service, we just don’t want to see it broken up. Bournemouth and Poole haven’t lost their libraries, so why Dorset?” He said ADLIB have put forward a number of suggestions to enable the council to secure additional income from the service, such as charging for book reservations.
Mr Lee said the group is also keeping a close eye on the first High Court battle about library closures. Yesterday campaign lawyers for Brent applied for a judicial review, arguing council officers unlawfully failed to assess local needs and the likely impact of closing half the London borough libraries. If successful, the Brent case is expected to be followed by similar challenges to cuts proposed by Gloucestershire, Somerset and Isle of Wight councils.
Charmouth: Library could still face closure
10:00am Friday 15 July 2011
Lyme Regis Library has been saved but the threat of closure still looms over Charmouth.
Councillors will consider two final options for the future of the library service at a meeting of Dorset County Council on July 21 when members will be asked to consider withdrawing funding from nine of its 34 libraries. However, library campaigners were given hope as the council’s cabinet also put forward an option to keep all 34 libraries open, with £800,000 savings met through other means such as reduction of the book fund and staff.
While Lyme Regis is on the ‘safe list’, Charmouth is among the nine libraries that could lose funding. West Moors, which had been on the list of 10 threatened libraries, has also been added to the list of libraries that would be retained under the proposal.
Campaigners in Charmouth were left disappointed following last Wednesday’s meeting. Hazel Robinson, chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, said: “It was disappointing to campaigners that the discussion was so unbalanced. “There were literally, hundreds of pages of words and lengthy speeches in support of Proposal B to close 10 libraries and very little on the merits of Proposal D which retains all libraries without any reduction in hours.” She added: “For some inexplicable reason, Dorset Library Service officers and portfolio holder Hilary Cox are vehemently opposed to it.”
Director of adult and community services Debbie Ward said that those communities that lost council funding would be offered the chance to take on the running of the service. She said: “It is challenging but there is a very clear and workable offer.” Mrs Ward said the alternative proposal, favoured by campaign group Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries), is to retain funding to all 34 libraries and make cuts across the service included reducing the book fund to £434,400. She said this was nearly £100,000 below the fund proposed in the first option and the figure council officers believed was appropriate’.
Mrs Cox said: “It is very clear that going forward we must do our best to future-proof the service.”
Mrs Robinson said the prospect of trying to set up community-run libraries is ‘unpalatable, perhaps impossible’. She added: “AdLib invites as many supporters as possible to attend the meeting at County Hall on July 21 to show that we have not lost our enthusiasm to retain all our libraries and believe that the democratic will of the people of Dorset should prevail.”
Marshwood Vale county councillor Col Geoff Brierley has welcomed the news that Lyme Regis is safe but said the battle is still on in Charmouth. He said: “I have been involved in library closures since I became a councillor 10 years ago and this is the fifth time I have stood up in council to fight the closure of libraries. It’s time it stopped. Stop mucking about with the libraries and muck about with something else.”
Ad Lib vow to take legal action over Dorset library cuts
11:00am Wednesday 13 July 2011
Library campaigners have vowed to seek a legal challenge if they have to in their fight to save Dorset’s threatened Libraries.
With nine of the county’s libraries faced with the loss of Dorset County Council funding, the campaign group Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) has been given a boost by legal victories for library challenges elsewhere in the country. Last week library campaigners fighting the potential closure of libraries in Gloucestershire were granted permission to challenge the council’s plans. Residents bidding to save five libraries in the Isle of Wight have also been granted legal aid to fight their cause.
Acting chairman of Ad Lib Tim Lee said: “We’d much rather that the fight to save our libraries did not end up in court but we’ll seek the protection of the law if we have to. As avoiding court action would be so easy, we hope we won’t see Dorset County Council wasting taxpayers’ money on such an unnecessary fight. Its leaders keep telling us how important it is to save money, so why take the risk of a legal challenge when there’s no need to do so?”
Ad Lib committee member Rob Hynds, who is chairman of the friends of Burton Bradstock library, added: “The leading firm of public interest solicitors – who are acting for our opposite numbers in the Isle of Wight – have, at our request, also been keeping an eye on what’s happening here. Our supporters are making sure that they are fully up to speed on this protracted campaign. But, as Tim Lee has said, we would much rather win our argument in the council chamber than in court.”
Councillors at Dorset County Council will vote next Thursday on two options on the future of Dorset’s libraries as the authority seeks to save £800,000. One option proposes withdrawing funding to nine of its 34 libraries and the other suggests making savings across the service – such as cutting the book fund and staff – in order to keep all of the libraries open.
Ad Lib are calling on library supporters to write to council leader Angus Campbell at County Hall, urging him to ask for a free vote so the final decision is not decided on party lines. Mr Lee said: “We want all our councillors to be allowed to vote according to their consciences. This is no time for Mr Campbell to resort to twisting the arms of councillors to make them vote for closures.”
Hilary Cox, the county council’s cabinet member for community services, said: “Dorset is currently among the best-served county areas in England in terms of libraries per 1,000 population, but unfortunately, the service we have today is no longer affordable. Meeting our statutory obligations, as set out in the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act, is central to the provision and arrangements for Dorset libraries. Proposals have been the subject of an extensive public consultation period over three months, and the proposals amended as a result of this feedback. At their meeting on 21 July, county councillors will have two clear options to consider, both in terms of the future provision of the library service and making the required level of savings. Both options have undergone a thorough equalities impact assessment to ensure obligations are met.”
Think before you scrap library
9:00am Wednesday 13 July 2011
LETTER from Val Seddon, committee member, Friends of Colehill Library, Cannon Hill Road, Colehill
"AS a member of the Friends of Colehill Library, I am at a loss as to why at every council meeting there seem such determination to close what figures show to be a thriving library.
We have now almost reached the point of desperation – asking ourselves what more we can do when we have produced figures to show that we are one of the most successful libraries in the area.
I want to emphasise what the loss of our library would mean to our children. Parents go to great lengths to improve their children’s chances in life: they change schools, they move house, they hire tutors, they deprive themselves financially. The most effective thing of all is to take them to the library. Colehill Library is within walking distance for hundreds of young families. It is also within walking distance of five schools. Colehill First School neighbours the library and uses it weekly as a teaching resource. With a population at Colehill of over 7,000, many of them young families with two and three children, getting to Wimborne Library would be extremely costly and a logistical nightmare. These are the low and middle income families who are feeling the economic pinch but understand the need for their children to read and who are subsequently turning to the libraries in increasing numbers. Visit our library at the end of the school day and you will see it as a happy, child-centred place.
A library with enjoyable activities organised by the two librarians who have received awards for their contributions to the community.
Colehill Library is top of the county “child issue table” with a magnificent 37.5 per cent of its total book issue going to children. Is this not something to be proud of?
At a time when further education is becoming increasingly unaffordable, why are we denying our younger generation the opportunity for self-education and the life enrichment offered by the reading habit?
Councillors and officers, at your final decision making meetings, remind yourselves of the report by Unesco which states that reading for pleasure is the single best indicator of future social mobility. And please think very carefully before you consign Colehill Library to the scrap heap."
Repair cost estimates put library on hit list
7:00am Tuesday 12 July 2011
Don't shut our library because of overblown repair estimates. That’s the plea from readers at Colehill Library, which is still being considered for closure by Dorset County Council.
Friends of Colehill Library chairman Derek Henderson believes a £66,050 figure for ‘repairs and maintenance’ may lie behind the library’s position on an ‘at threat’ list.
In fact, he says, £45,000 of this hefty sum is for replacing the library windows in five or six years’ time. And a professional architect approached by the Friends believes the building in Middlehill Road could be double glazed for £17,500.
Mr Henderson said: “He also suggested that there are some less expensive ways of achieving the same end. For this year and the next two the total maintenance sum is only £2,000. The suggestion that the windows will need replacement in five years’ time suggests that either the library has not been adequately maintained in the past, or that there is no intention to do so in the future.” But internal and external redecorations are listed for 2014-15 and 2015-16, he says, so it won’t be necessary.
Colehill, which saw off closure in 2001, 2004 and 2007, tops the county’s list for hiring the most books to children and issues there are increasing.
County councillor for the area, Janet Dover, is calling for Colehill to join the 25 given a reprieve, as West Moors library was on Wednesday. “These figures really need further scrutiny,” she said. “This ridiculous amount of £45,000 is obviously very high upon the officers’ minds.
“Getting options B and D through is better than the alternatives. It’s another step up the ladder, but we will be pleading next month for Colehill to be saved.”
Councillors are being confused
10:30am Monday 11 July 2011
LETTER from Mike Chaney, High Street, Puddletown Chairman of the friends of Puddletown library and spokesman for Ad Lib
"There has been argument in your columns about whether it’s elected councillors or local authority bureaucrats who run our lives. The theory is that our democratically elected representatives decide what’s to happen and then the ‘officers’ do their bidding. But, as we see in this week’s decision of Dorset County Council’s cabinet, in this ‘Yes Minister’ world, the trump cards are in officers’ hands.
The cabinet only grudgingly agreed to allow the 45 members of the council the chance to vote on whether to keep open Dorset’s unique network of branch libraries when they meet later this month. It did so despite the opposition of the council’s library bosses. They, and Coun Hilary Cox, who supervises the work of Dorset’s libraries, want to close nine of Dorset’s smallest libraries, including mine and five others in your newspaper’s circulation area.
Yet a panel of councillors, who met over a six-month period to do the sums, say that keeping libraries open is the most cost-effective way of making the savings needed.
How did the members of the cabinet come to give such a fair wind to the officers’ wishes? Why didn’t they back the recommendation of their fellow councillors? Their preference for closure shows clearly how our municipal Sir Humphreys get their way.
They put our decision-makers under intolerable pressure with a blizzard of words. They simply overload councillors with lengthy reports tailored to lead them the way they want them to go. For this week’s meeting they prepared 371 pages of argument, 221 of them on libraries alone.
A fair-minded reader might detect in that deluge more than a little prejudice in its pointed emphasis on the need for library closures.
Cynics working in our local councils maintain that you can always tell which of their fellows will get to the top of the greasy promotion pole: they’re the ones who most effectively bamboozle the councillors, either by overload or by obfuscation utilising terminological circumlocution? Or, as we would say, by using lots of long words."
Crunch time looms for the future of Dorset's libraries
11:00am Thursday 7 July 2011
A final decision on the future of the service will be made at a meeting of Dorset County Council on July 21, with members asked to consider withdrawing funding from nine of its network of 34 libraries.
However, library campaigners were given hope as the council’s cabinet also put forward an option to keep all 34 libraries open, with the authority’s £800,000 savings target met through other means such as reduction of the book fund and staff.
The nine libraries that could lose funding as a result of the decision are Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Colehill, Corfe Castle, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool. West Moors had been on a list of ten threatened libraries but cabinet members agreed to add it to the list of libraries that would be retained under the proposal.
Director of adult and community services Debbie Ward said that under the proposal those communities whose libraries that lost council funding would be offered the chance to take on the running of the service. She said these communities would continue to receive support from the county council so even the more rural libraries would be in a position to take on the facility. Mrs Ward said: “We are currently looking at what additional support can be provided to those communities where they have not got the framework and established mechanisms in place. It is challenging but there is a very clear and workable offer.”
Mrs Ward said the alternative proposal, favoured by campaign group Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries), to retain funding to all 34 libraries and make cuts across the service included reducing the book fund to £434,400. She said this was nearly £100,000 below the fund proposed in the first option and the figure council officers believed was appropriate in their ‘professional assessment’.
Cabinet member for community services Hilary Cox said: “It is very clear that going forward we must do our best to future-proof the service.”
Campaigners unite to fight Wool village library closure
5:00pm Tuesday 5 July 2011
Angry protesters have gathered in Wool in a bid to sway county chiefs from axing their village library. Wool is one of 20 rural libraries threatened with closure as Dorset County Council seeks to claw back £724,000 from its library service budget.
Tomorrow, the council’s cabinet will be presented with a number of ways to proceed on the library issue. Top of the list is an option, backed by director of adult and community services Debbie Ward, which will result in loss of funding for 10 libraries including Wool, Corfe Castle, West Moors and Colehill.
If these plans go ahead, Wool’s residents would likely be served by a mobile library, which locals say falls woefully short of the service they deserve.
Friends of Wool Library chairman David Smith said: “It makes no economic sense to close Wool library as running costs are very low. The county pays a minimal rent and the parish council already meet some of the staff costs.”
The library, at the D’Urberville Centre, Colliers Lane, serves Wool and surrounding villages. Protesters say it is a popular community hub which plays a vital role in rural Dorset, particularly for parents with young children.
“It makes no geographic sense to leave a whole swathe of rural county without a static library,” Mr Smith added. The alternatives of an overstretched mobile service or the inconvenience and costs of travel to a distant town library are neither equitable nor green. It makes no social sense to dissolve yet more of the glue which binds communities together and enables them to be self-supportive, less of a burden on the taxpayer.”
Top Tories back plan to keep Dorset libraries open
12:00pm Tuesday 5 July 2011
Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, a Conservative peer, has given his support to the Ad Lib (Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) campaign.
West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin, who is a member of the coalition cabinet, has also backed opposition to Dorset County Council proposals to withdraw funding to ten libraries.
The council is just weeks away from making a decision on the future of the library service in Dorset as it seeks to achieve savings of £800,000. The option preferred by council officers would see ten of the county’s 34 libraries lose funding and face the threat of closure. Ad Lib is supporting an alternative proposal that would see all 34 libraries retain funding, with savings made across the service in a bid to achieve the council’s target.
Lord Fellowes of West Stafford has penned a letter to the council’s cabinet member for community services Hilary Cox and chairman of its police development panel Councillor David Crowhurst. He says: “There seems to have grown up an idea that the destruction of libraries is somehow demanded by the Prime Minister and that it is an act of loyalty to him and his policies to lay them waste. In fact he and the Chancellor want to hear of imaginative schemes that mean money may be saved with as little damage to communities as possible.”
Lord Fellowes also states that he was amazed to hear that Conservative councillors defeated a proposal to support the Ad Lib-backed option of retaining all 34 libraries at a meeting of the council’s community overview committee. He said: “I must confess to a sense of amazement at the news that a recent bid to save the threatened libraries of Dorset was defeated last week by a vote from the Conservative councillors. This, when it seemed to have been made clear that there was a sensible and workable plan which meant the essential savings could be made anyway, and that there was therefore no need to wreck this precious facility or to lose at least quite so many jobs.”
Mr Letwin has also written a letter supporting the work of the Ad Lib group and voicing his preference for the retention of all of Dorset’s libraries. He says: “I am a keen supporter of local involvement in community libraries and I welcome the fact that people in West Dorset continue to make important contributions through voluntary efforts. However, I think we have to recognise that there are limits on what volunteers can be expected to do and on the ability of village communities to raise their own funding.”
Acting chairman of Ad Lib Tim Lee said: “We are enormously encouraged by the support of two such high profile Conservative politicians. Especially as it was Conservative councillors who voted down a call to preserve all the libraries last month.”
Campaigners urge Dorset County Council to save library jobs
4:00pm Saturday 2 July 2011
Library campaigners are urging Dorset County Council to save jobs by keeping the county’s 10 under-fire Libraries open.
This month sees the final decision on the future of Dorset’s library service, with a proposal to withdraw funding to 10 of the county’s 34 libraries being recommended to the council by officers as the authority seeks to save £800,000.
However, Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) is calling on councillors to back another option, which involves making cuts across the service in order to keep all 34 libraries open.
A report considered by the council’s community overview committee on Monday, June 20, stated that the option supported by Ad Lib would see six posts lost in the library service, compared to 24 posts if 10 libraries were to lose funding.
Acting chairman Tim Lee said: ... “The plan we are advocating, which would keep all 34 of the county’s libraries open, saves four times as many jobs as the one the professional management of the library network is backing. The case they are putting to the county council shows that many more jobs will go if their plan is accepted. Yet it would save not a penny more than the alternative scheme we are backing for making the economies the council needs to achieve.”
Ad Lib spokesman and chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library Mike Chaney added: “It’s difficult to see why the library chiefs want to put at least 18 more members of staff out of work than they need to. You would think they would be making every effort to keep staff on.”
Beaminster: Library has new hopes of survival
11:30am Thursday 23 June 2011
Beaminster Coun Rebecca Knox, who has helped pull together the Beaminster Library Action Group, said after the meeting: “It is brilliant news for Beaminster. “I am hugely delighted that the work of the Beaminster Library Action Group has put us in the 24.”
Coun Karl Wallace, who represents Bridport on the county council, said that third world countries were increasing the number libraries because they saw how knowledge got create better future for their children. He also suggested that money from children services could also help boost the libraries. He added after the meeting that keeping libraries open was crucial. He said that because of severe dyslexia he only learned to read and write properly at the age of 27. “Libraries are not just about borrowing books. They help motivate and develop young people for the future. It is a retrograde step to close them. They are essential for learning.”
Volunteers at Burton Bradstock have already indicated they intend to keep the library open. Bridport library is not under threat of closure. Members of Bridport Library’s Reading Group also backed moves to retain all 34 libraries. Campaigners demonstrated on steps of County Hall before the meeting. Following the meeting the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries spokesman Tim Lee said he was disappointed with the decision of the councillors.
Lyme Regis and Charmouth: Ray of hope for library rescue bid
10:20am Wednesday 22 June 2011
Anita Williams, from the Save the Lyme Regis Library Campaign, said: “The meeting was very confused again. I’m disappointed there seems to be contradiction between what people said and what people voted. I was disappointed that a request was made for a recorded vote that was not supported. It would be nice to see councillors prepared to stand up and be accountable.” Ms Williams said while the situation is hopeful for Lyme, she would have liked to see a ‘proper plan’ that saved all Dorset’s libraries. “We are another step closer to being saved,” she said. “But we won’t be cracking open the bottles until after full council in July. We really feel for Charmouth because they have worked so hard. It must be soul destroying to get to this stage.”
Hazel Robinson, chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, said although all four options have gone forward, B and D remain the only real ones in contention. She said: “It remains hard for those of us who care about keeping our libraries to understand how Conservative councillors are so obdurate in their support for closures, even when there is a viable alternative which their own advisory committee, the Policy Development Panel, has devised.”
Future of Dorset libraries still hang in balance
1:30pm Tuesday 21 June 2011
The threat of closure still hangs over Libraries in Dorset after the service’s future was discussed by councillors. After the meeting of Dorset County Council’s community overview committee, library campaigners claimed that ‘democracy has not been served’ as members voted down a proposal to support the retention all 34 of the county’s libraries.
The committee was presented with a report outlining four options for the future of the Dorset library service as it seeks to save £724,000.
They were:
Option A, the council’s original proposal to withdraw funding from 20 of the council’s 34 libraries and offer communities the chance to keep them running
Option B, (a revised option based on the original) 10 libraries to lose funding and the balance of savings made up through less books and staff.
Option C, to retain all 34 libraries and find savings through other means such as reducing opening hours by 10 per cent, cutting book funds and staff.
Option D, retention all of the libraries and finding funds through similar cuts to books and staff as well as reviewing the way books are bought and distributed.
Director of adult and community services Debbie Ward told the committee that Option B was the preferred route of council officers following a consultation process into the future of the library service.
While ten of the previously threatened libraries would be spared, it would still leave Burton Bradstock, Charminster, Chickerell, Colehill, Corfe Castle, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge, West Moors and Wool libraries all facing the prospect of losing council funding.
Tim Lee, spokesman for Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries), said that if Option B went ahead it would be likely to result in the closure of at least seven of those libraries, with communities unable to provide the resources to take them on. He said: “Under Option B it is almost certain that seven libraries will be forced to close forever and, depending on how negotiations progress, that could increase.”
Coun David Crowhurst spoke as chairman of the policy development panel, a group of councillors that had been looking at the future of the libraries, and said they supported Option D. Their view was supported by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s spokesman for equality, diversity and social cohesion Kate Wheller, who raised concerns for the future of Portland Underhill library. She said: “If you are serious about saving money and want to go on offering a proper service you should be looking at making efficiency savings across the board, not swingeing cuts to some libraries. In year’s time you will have the same problems you have now.” Coun David C Fox proposed option D but the vote was lost.
Members instead agreed to go forward with the officer recommendations that all four options be presented to the council’s cabinet, with option B the preferred choice.
The cabinet will consider the options on July 6 and make a recommendation ahead of a final decision at full council on July 21.
Lyme Regis and Charmouth: New page may save threatened libraries
10:00am Friday 17 June 2011
In a dramatic U-turn, councillors asked by Dorset County Council to determine the future of 20 threatened libraries have called for them all to be safeguarded. The councillors are members of the Policy Development Panel (PDP), who want to preserve all 34 libraries by cutting costs in other ways.
But county library bosses still want 10 community libraries to be abandoned – although this is an improvement on the initial 20. Under this proposal, Lyme Regis and Beaminster libraries would be among those saved, but Charmouth and Burton Bradstock would be among those closed down and offered up to the community to run.
Four money-saving options will go before the council’s Community Overview Committee next Monday. ...
What the options are:
• A – Retain 14 core libraries and offer the remaining 20 libraries to be run by local communities (supported by the county council).
• B – Retain 24 libraries, and offer the remaining 10 for local community ownership and management (supported by the county council). This option would involve a reduction in the bookfund and in frontline, management and support staff. Income options would be introduced through contributions for book reservations and reading groups would be invited to make donations to the service.
• C – Reduce opening hours across all 34 libraries by 10 per cent, cut the bookfund and reduce frontline, management and support staff. Charges would be introduced for book reservations, and reading groups would be invited to make donations to the service.
• D – Reduce the bookfund, review the approach to buying books, cut the frequency of book deliveries, and reduce management and support staff.
Representatives of the Save the Lyme Regis Library Campaign have welcomed the concessions but remain ‘cautiously optimistic’. Group member Anita Williams said: “We are encouraged to see that it has been recognised that Lyme has a great need for a library service on the grounds of our geographic location, deprivation and demographic grounds.” Ms Williams said they would continue to press their case by attending Monday’s meeting and lobbying until July’s full council meeting to make sure Lyme remains on the ‘saved’ list. She added: “Whilst being encouraged at our own position, our thoughts are with those communities such as Charmouth that are still continuing to fight for the retention of their library. We’re not celebrating yet, but it does look like there is some light at the end of the tunnel and we are cautiously optimistic for the future of our library.”
The Friends of Charmouth Library have welcomed the PDP support. Chairman Hazel Robinson said: “How can it be that Dorset Library Service, the very people who should want to keep open and improve all our libraries, are anxious to close them and have, in my opinion, weighted their report against the recommendations of the Policy Development Panel?” Mrs Robinson said it is ‘highly unlikely’ that small communities like Charmouth can find sufficient funds and volunteers to run the libraries.
Debbie Ward, the council’s director of adult and community services, said: “The decreasing amount of resources means that the current level of service cannot be maintained. There are a number of significant factors to balance when determining a way forward for the library service, both in terms of the future provision of the library service and making the required level of savings.”
Library update: Ten could be spared from service closure
12:00pm Tuesday 14 June 2011
Ten Libraries could be spared from the threat of closure after council officers backed new proposals for the future of the service in Dorset.
However, library campaigners are still angry as they claim a panel of councillors’ calls to keep open all 34 of the county’s libraries are being ignored.
The future of the library service is to be debated at a meeting of Dorset County Council’s community overview committee on Monday, June 20, where members will consider four options put forward by officers. These include the original proposal, option A, to withdraw funding from 20 of the council’s 34 libraries in a bid to save around £800,000.
A new option, option B, presented in the report is to continue to provide council funding for 24 libraries and make the additional savings required through a reduction in book funds and staff. The report states that option B is the preferred choice of the officers.
The remaining two options both involve retaining all 34 libraries by finding the savings through other means. Option C involves the reduction of opening hours across all libraries by 10 per cent, as well as cutting book funds and staff.
Option D proposes similar cuts to book funds and staff as well as a review of the way books are bought. The report states that the policy development panel – a group of councillors appointed in July last year to consider the various options for the future of the library service – was in favour of option D.
Acting chairman of Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) Tim Lee said: “We are astounded that the unelected officials of the library service should have the effrontery to insist on their own policy of getting rid of libraries against the wishes of the councillors who have spent months weighing up all the options.”
The community overview committee will make a recommendation that will go before the council’s cabinet on July 6 and then full council on July 21.
Mike Chaney, spokesman for Ad Lib and chairman of Friends of Puddletown Library, added: “We think that the panel has done an extremely good job and hope that the other councillors will see sense and follow their advice and not be diverted by the officers of the library service. It seems to be sheer bloody mindedness by the people who run the libraries who seem to be so desperate to get rid of some that they will clasp at any straw.”
Debbie Ward, the council’s director of adult and community services, said: “The decreasing amount of resources means that the current level of service cannot be maintained. There are a number of significant factors to balance when determining a way forward for the library service, both in terms of the future provision of the library service and making the required level of savings.”
Library update: Council discusses 'option B'
12:00pm Tuesday 14 June 2011
The 10 libraries that could be spared from the threat of closure are: Beaminster, Corfe Mullen, Crossways, Littlemoor, Lyme Regis, Lytchett Matravers, Portland Tophill, Sturminster Newton, Upton and Wyke Regis.
The libraries that would still face the withdrawal of funding are: Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Colehill, Corfe Castle, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge, West Moors and Wool.
Mr Chaney said that the majority of these libraries were unlikely to be able to take up the council’s offer to run themselves as community libraries and faced the prospect of closure.
Lyme Regis: Rescue plan may save town library
11:01am Wednesday 8 June
A rescue package to save Lyme Regis Library while also providing affordable housing and a new learning centre has been announced. Talks are taking place to re-locate the threatened library from Silver Street to land behind The Hub youth centre in Church Street. Lyme Regis Development Trust, LymeNET, the Diocese of Salisbury, Woodroffe School, Magna Housing Association and Dorset County Council are all involved in the discussions. The move would see a new library built on the old playground behind The Hub, which belongs to the church, with LymeNET community learning centre also relocating there. A new study area for Woodroffe School would also be incorporated, while the church hall would be refurbished and linked to the new resource.
Wendy Davies, chairman of Lyme Regis Development Trust, said: “We agreed with the library service that we would do some sums to see if all this stacks up – it’s all very much a grand vision rather than a firm plan. LymeNET is currently staffed for 38 hours a week and the library is only staffed 20 hours a week, so we could have longer opening hours without any extra costs. The school is interested in having a library/study space in the town for students".
Tracy Long, Dorset County Council library service manager, said: “The proposal from the Lyme Regis Development Group is a positive step in finding solutions that could work for the local community. “It is however, important to note that the proposal is still at an early stage, and until the details are more developed, no decisions can be made.”
Charmouth: Library land mystery help is needed
10:00am Friday 3 June 2011
Charmouth campaigners are appealing for help to solve a mystery surrounding their library building. The Friends of Charmouth Library hope some new information could bolster their campaign. Friends chairman Hazel Robinson said: “Myth, rumour and old memories say that the land on which the library is built was donated by someone in the village for community purposes – possibly covenanted specifically for a library. This is where the mystery begins as the Land Registry has no record of a covenant and nor has Dorset County Council. “Older residents in the village remember the library’s opening in 1982 and insist that the site was donated, but there the information ends.”
Mrs Robinson said the residents also remember that its controversial design brought a lot of press attention. She said: “So we wonder if anyone knows any more about this mystery? Is it just persistent myth and rumour or is it fact? If the site was donated specifically for community use, this would have a significant impact on what would happen if Dorset County Council closes the library and the parish council and Friends of Charmouth Library find that they cannot fund the takeover of the building as a community library. “Though the building itself belongs to Dorset County Council, should the land use be restricted for the benefit of Charmouth, this would produce a very interesting legal situation.”
The campaigners and Charmouth Parish Council met last week with Dorset Library Service manager Tracy Long to discuss the future running of the library. They welcomed the improved offer from the county council – to retain computers, some new books, book circulation and three hours a week of professional assistance – but questioned the ‘small print’ of the offer.
Mrs Robinson said: “This small print says that community libraries will not be part of the core system and will not be under the protection of the 1964 Museums and Libraries Act. “This would mean DCC could withdraw all its facilities at any time and there would be no means of legal redress.”
The Friends have also taken legal advice over advice that local councils cannot fund libraries except from amounts collected under Section 137 of the Local Government Act. “This fund is strictly limited by law and would mean that many councils, including Charmouth’s, simply could not afford to undertake library funding even if they are willing to do so,” said Mrs Robinson.
She added: “We now await legal advice on these issues as the parish council and friends of the library still wish to keep the library open, even if in the last resort it has to be community run.”
Poor response to libraries' rescue
3:00pm Monday 30 May 2011
Just four of 20 communities facing the closure of their library have stepped forward to take on the running of their building, a campaign group has claimed. The Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries (Ad Lib) has warned that communities that don’t accept Dorset County Council’s offer to let them take over their libraries, could see them close if alternative proposals are rejected by the council.
Cash-strapped Dorset County Council could close 20 rural libraries – including those at Corfe, Colehill, Lytchett Matravers, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Upton, and Wool – if communities don’t sign up for the council’s “community takeover” package by June 8. AdLib spokesman, Tim Lee, warned that libraries not taken on by local groups could simply “shut up shop” next spring if AdLib’s proposals to save cash while keeping libraries open were not accepted.
Lyme Regis: Library is one of six that may survive closure
11:18am Wednesday 25 May 2011
Lyme Regis library has been named on a list of six in the county with a chance of surviving closure, it has been claimed. Campaigners have been told by library bosses that Dorset County Council recognises some threatened libraries are open to challenge.
The Save the Lyme Regis Library ... group member Wendy Davies said ‘smaller numbers do not mean less interest’. ... Speaking at Monday’s meeting, Mrs Davies said: “Tracy Long explained there was a list of libraries, there were six libraries where they thought it might be open to challenge and Lyme Regis was on that list. But there was nothing to say those libraries were safe, it was them recognising that those libraries could potentially fight it.”
The campaign group said they could not reveal details of the proposal until the other parties involved have confirmed their interest, but Lyme Regis Development Trust is involved in the talks.
A Dorset County Council spokesman said: “Dorset County Council has not removed six community libraries from the list of 20 which may be offered up to local communities to run. Several months ago, the policy development panel for libraries discussed the possibility of looking again at our criteria for retaining libraries, taking into account issues such as social deprivation and geography, and mooted a number of community libraries which might be added to our 'core' list of 14 libraries. Lyme Regis was one of the ones suggested. However, the full county council subsequently agreed (in February) to begin public consultation on the proposals to offer up 20 libraries for local communities to take over running, and – at the same time – examine other ways in which those 20 libraries could continue to be supported by the county council. We are now meeting with communities, including Lyme Regis, to explore a range of ideas and options around the community offer. Following that consultation, we will be presenting options to the council's community overview committee for further debate and discussion in June.”
West Dorset: Ad Lib encouraged by new book loan figures
10:00am Friday 20 May 2011
Campaigners claim that new figures show that many threatened libraries have issued an increased number of books.
Ad Lib chairman Graham Lee said: “The figures just issued show how ill-thought out this plan is. We now know that the big town libraries Dorset Library Service wants to preserve are doing less well than many of the smaller ones it wants to wash its hands of. We accept that libraries serve many other purposes than merely lending out books but that is what most people expect of them. Last year the county’s bigger libraries lost business, while some of the smaller libraries lent more books than in the year before.”
Books issued went down in Bridport library, which is not under threat, Burton Bradstock, Charmouth and Lyme Regis.
Beaminster county councillor Rebecca Knox, who is on the Beaminster Library Action Group, said she hoped the figures strengthened their case. She said: “It is a well used and well loved library. It is incredibly important. It serves eight or nine parishes in addition to the town of Beaminster.
Book loan figures from libraries slammed by campaigners
10:30am Thursday 19 May 2011
Library campaigners claim that new figures showing a drop in the number of books issued are ‘insignificant’ and are a result of reduced opening hours. In Lyme Regis there was a four per cent decrease in the number issued last year compared with 2009, and a two per cent drop in Charmouth.
But the Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries (Ad Lib) group claims that many threatened libraries have issued an increased number. Beaminster did particularly well with a six per cent increase last year compared with the previous year.
Lyme Regis and Charmouth are two of the 20 small libraries facing a funding cut from Dorset County Council along with Beaminster and Burton Bradstock.
Campaigners acknowledge the decline, but point out that some of the larger libraries, which are safe, have also failed to retain issue numbers.
Hazel Robinson, chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, said: “What is even more surprising is that the larger libraries have longer and more convenient opening hours and many more facilities and activities than the smaller, local libraries yet they have still not managed to retain their book issue figures. Smaller libraries are also more cost-effective per issue because of their lower running costs. Mrs Robinson said the two per cent drop is ‘statistically insignificant’ and could be put down to a recently improved library in the local school. Friends of Charmouth Library believe that if they are allowed to provide more services in the library than has been allowed by Dorset Library Services in the past, the book issue figures would rise very rapidly – as long as there is a library,” she said.
Library opening hours have been reduced gradually over the years, which campaigners claim could account for the figures.
Anita Williams, of the Save the Lyme Regis Library Campaign, said: “It is clear that the issue figures for Lyme Regis have decreased year on year following the reduction of hours by the county council in recent years.” Ms Williams said it should be noted that there were also over 3,100 online renewals last year. She added that the county council’s figures show that Lyme library is used by 38 per cent of the town’s population. I am not overly surprised at the decrease in usage,” said Ms Williams. “Since we started the library campaign, we have heard consistently from the users of our library that they are not happy with the service operated by the county. The library is currently only open for 20 hours per week and we hear from all sections of the population that this is not sufficient.”
Library figures: Campaigners argue that small libraries are cost effective
1:00pm Tuesday 17 May 2011
Campaigners fighting to save Dorset’s Libraries say that the small libraries under threat of cuts are more cost effective.
Figures released by Dorset County Council’s libraries department to campaign group Ad Lib – The Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries – suggest that the number of books issued at libraries like Portland Tophill are on the rise. In 2009-10 28,929 books were taken out at the site but in 2010-11 30,097 books were taken out, an increase of four per cent. Children made up 25 per cent to those taking out books.
Other threatened community libraries like Littlemoor, Wyke Regis and Chickerell saw circulation drop between one and four per cent, but this is less than the drop in circulation at bigger libraries like Dorchester and Weymouth. Weymouth saw a drop of 12 per cent in circulation between 2009-10 and 2010-11 from 197,726 to 174,973, and Dorchester saw a drop of 10 per cent from 253,764 in 2009-10 to 227,994 in 2010-11.
Head of Ad Lib Graham Lee said: “The figures just issued show how ill-thought out this plan is. “We now know that the big town libraries Dorset Library Service wants to preserve are doing less well than many of the smaller ones it wants to wash its hands of. We accept that libraries serve many other purposes than merely lending out books but that is what most people expect of them. On that basis, last year the county’s bigger libraries lost business, while some of the smaller libraries lent more books than in the year before.”
Portland library campaigner and councillor Sandy West said that the new figures helped to strengthen the campaign to keep the libraries open. She said: “Libraries provide other vital resources as well as books like computers and internet access. Not everyone has a computer at home.” Coun West added that as well as helping to educate and inspire young people, libraries were the ‘heart of communities.’
A separate report has been compiled by Dr Robert Lowe, a libraries campaigner from North Dorset, and he found that community libraries were more cost effective compared to main town libraries. The total net cost per book issued for community libraries was 90p. Dr Lowe said: “There have been some major omissions by Dorset County Council, they have not looked at this kind of data. They are not looking at whether it makes sense.”
Library figures: The facts about Dorset services
1:00pm Tuesday 17 May 2011
BOOKS ISSUED 2008-09.
Dorchester: 269,507.
Weymouth: 208,857.
Littlemoor: 44,764.
Portland Tophill: 32,221.
Wyke Regis: 36,498.
Chickerell: 11,563.
Portland Underhill: 8,802 .
BOOKS ISSUED 2009-10.
Dorchester: 253,764.
Weymouth: 197,726.
Littlemoor: 39,238.
Portland Tophill: 28,929.
Wyke Regis: 31,497.
Chickerell: 13,828.
Portland Underhill: 7,676 .
BOOKS ISSUED 2010-11.
Dorchester: 227,994.
Weymouth: 174,973.
Littlemoor: 39,002.
Portland Tophill: 30,097.
Wyke Regis: 30,118.
Chickerell: 13,348.
Portland Underhill: 6,722 .
Cost-effectiveness (total net cost per issue) - calculated by net costs of running a library divided by the number of books issued on loan:
Dorchester 86p
Littlemoor 88p
Wyke Regis 103p
Portland Tophill 114p
Chickerell 118p
Weymouth 131p
Portland Underhill 300p.
Ad Lib plea: 'Give us fewer books, not fewer libraries'
11:30am Sunday 15 May 2011
Stop buying so many books – that’s the surprise message from campaigners fighting cuts to 20 of Dorset’s ‘community libraries’.
Ad Lib, the group protesting against Dorset County council’s proposals to save £800,000 from the library budget, has discovered there are more books than shelf space, and around £250,000 will be spent over the next year.
Chairman Graham Lee said: “In these difficult times we think that it is just not necessary to spend so much and we are book lovers. We accept that Dorset always has been generous in what it spends on books and in normal circumstances we welcome that. But these aren’t normal times. If cuts have to be made the county would be better off with fewer books than fewer libraries.”
Ad Lib campaign: Library concessions 'don't go far enough'
12:20pm Friday 13 May 2011
Tim Lee, acting chairman of Ad Lib said ... “It presupposes that such libraries would be able to find the score or so volunteers who would be needed. And yet we know that when Dorset floated a similar idea four years ago, during the last round of cuts, only three communities could find such volunteers and if this deal goes through the need for such volunteers will be vastly greater.”
Rob Hynds, who heads the team of volunteers at Burton Bradstock that took over the library in the last round of cuts, said the new offer would mean that communities would have to pay operating costs of between £7,000 and £12,000 a year. He said: “Such a huge burden is unfair to Dorset’s rural population.”
Council chief says good stock turnover is essential to library users
1:00pm Thursday 12 May 2011
Paul Leivers, Dorset County Council’s head of cultural services, said that a good turnover of book stock is one of the main priorities for library users. He said: “The book fund was reduced following the libraries efficiency review in 2008, and has been further reduced as part of the library service savings. Feedback from library users in Dorset shows that a good turnover of book stock is among their main priorities. This means that too great a reduction in the regular addition of new books may be counter-productive and would have to be considered very carefully."
AdLib urges Dorset council to spend less on library books
1:00pm Thursday 12 May 2011
Campaigners fighting to save Dorset’s threatened Libraries claim the county council is spending too much on books. The Ad Lib (Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries) group says its research has revealed Dorset County Council’s libraries now hold more books than it has shelf space to display them on. It wants to see the authority rein in its spending on books so it can rethink a proposal to withdraw funding from 20 village and small town libraries in the county.
Chairman Graham Lee said: “We have suggested that to save those 20 libraries, the county council should spend less on buying new books. The way we have suggested for making the economies Dorset needs to find has been rejected on the grounds that it would rob the county of the books its libraries need. But now we have discovered that, far from being short of books, Dorset has been buying so many there just isn’t room on the shelves for them all.”
Mr Lee said that, despite Dorset County Council’s aim of saving £800,000 off the cost of running its libraries next year, the authority was still planning to spend £750,000 on books in the coming year. He said: “In these difficult times we think that it is just not necessary to spend so much – and we are book lovers. We accept that Dorset has always been generous in what it spends on books and in normal circumstances we welcome that. But these aren’t normal times. We argue that if cuts have to be made the county would be better off with fewer books than fewer libraries.”
Mr Lee said in Somerset the county council spends just a third of the amount Dorset does and readers are still satisfied with the quality and range of books on offer.
County council given 'red alert' over failing projects
3:00pm Thursday 5 May 2011
... while a third of the council’s savings projects are complete, cabinet members yesterday were presented with a report that highlighted in red the slipping progress of key projects, including controversial plans to close 20 libraries and to withdraw funding for school crossing patrols.
... a public outcry over plans to close 20 libraries if local groups fail to accept an offer of “community take over” has forced the council to hold a public consultation, which will not end until June 13.
West Dorset: Library campaigners welcome concessions but want more
12:20pm Thursday 5 May 2011
Protesters in Lyme and Charmouth have welcomed concessions over their libraries but insist the renewed offer is still not good enough.
Under this proposal, community libraries would have to pay a peppercorn lease for the building and commit to an agreed number of opening hours by volunteers. The buildings would be available for other community uses, but costs such as utilities, maintenance, and insurance would have to be met by fundraising, income-producing activities, or contributions from local councils.
Campaigners in Lyme say despite the revised offer, they are still fighting to remain part of the core library network. Speaking for the campaigners, Anita Williams said: “We welcome Dorset Library Service’s revised offer, which provides for something that looks much more like a library service than the previous offer. “However, we are still of the view that Lyme Regis should remain as part of the core library network and should be funded by Dorset County Council. We still see no reason why Lyme residents should pay for their own library service when it will remain fully funded for other communities.”
They are also pushing for an even better service in future. “Library users have consistently told us that the 20 hours per week service that we have currently is not good enough,” said Ms Williams.
In Charmouth, campaigners have warned that large numbers of volunteers would have to be found to make the revised proposals work. Hazel Robinson, chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, said this is a difficult proposition in a county where so many people are already volunteering for other things.
Dorset County Council: £6m shortfall revealed
10:00am Thursday 5 May 2011
Dorset County Council has revealed a shortfall of more than £6million in its ambitious bid to save £55million over the next three years. The authority will now have to find new savings on top of those already identified after receiving a ‘reality check’ on the progress of its savings.
There was some good news for council workers though in the latest update given to the authority’s cabinet, as it was revealed that the number of redundancies were expected to be less than half the 500 posts initially threatened.
Areas where the savings were not expected to be achieved in the next year include the reorganisation of the county’s libraries and the reduction of subsidies for transport for people with learning disabilities and older people.
Proposed changes to staffing were also identified as delivering £2.1million less than previously anticipated after the council back tracked on a plan to require staff to take 12 days of unpaid leave in each of the next two years and reduced it to six days in each of the 2012 and 2013 calendar years.
Library bid: Campaigners say new proposals would be 'unworkable'
1:00pm Tuesday 3 May 2011
Library campaigners say an improved offer from Dorset County Council to continue some support for the county’s threatened Libraries does not go far enough. Supporters of the 20 libraries that could lose council funding have welcomed an offer from the authority to continue to provide a stock of books, three hours of librarian support a week and the continued use of the self-service withdrawal system. However, they claim the improved proposal put forward by the council’s library manager Tracy Long still does not solve their principle problem, which will be finding volunteers to keep the libraries open if the authority withdraws its funding.
Acting chairman of Ad Lib (the Association of Dorset Libraries) Tim Lee said: “We have been told that, if Dorset goes ahead with its plans to cease to fund these small libraries next year, we will continue to get a circulating supply of changing books, as we do at present. We have been campaigning for this as we know that any library will soon lose readers without constantly changing books to attract them in.
Mr Lee added: “This is a very welcome improvement on the totally unworkable proposal from the library service – but it goes nowhere near solving the problem facing our village and small town libraries. The new offer virtually takes away the essential help of our professional librarians, who would work in each community library for only three hours a week.” Mr Lee said the problem facing communities was finding the volunteers to keep the libraries going during the rest of their opening hours.
Mike Chaney, Ad Lib member and is chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library, added: “The council says it wants to have a library system that’s sustainable. I don’t believe a system which depends on volunteers is sustainable.
Library bid: Details of the county council's new offer
1:00pm Tuesday 3 May 2011
The new offer put forward by Dorset County Council to the 20 libraries faced with the withdrawal of funding includes:
• Between 300 and 500 new books per year to each library, plus a regular exchange of books to refresh stock
• Public access computers with broadband internet access, supported by the county council’s IT service and with access to the council’s library management system
• Self-service technology units, book shelving and furniture
• Three hours of staffing support each week, with the option for communities to fund additional time
• Initial training and support to help establish the new service.
Dorset County Council’s director for adult and community services Debbie Ward said: “The proposed package of support aims to enable local communities to manage their local library provision, providing a service which meets local needs. The offer would be provided at no cost to the local community."
Villagers in fight to keep library open
2:00pm Thursday 28 April 2011
Villagers from West Moors will fight to keep their library open again today, arguing that it does not even deserve to be considered for closure.
More than 2,000 people have signed a petition urging councillors to remove the library, in Station Road, from the list of 20 community libraries that could be shut.
They argue that a large bequest left by former resident Daphne Harrison in 1994 means the county council would have to repay around £64,000, as laid out in a 15-year agreement.
Councillor Peter Holden, chairman of West Moors Parish council and a member of the village’s library working party, will make their case before a 15 minute debate. ... it’s clear the threatened libraries have not been given enough time or full information about the costs. It is difficult to forecast what we are supposed to be budgeting for.” The council, which argues community groups could take on running any closed libraries, have given different predicted running costs, he added.
Villagers also feel that their concerns about “knock-on effects”, such as an estimated £30,000 bill from pensioners’ additional concessionary bus pass journeys to Ferndown instead, have not been answered properly. “They’ve said it is not part of the library, and that through these cuts they’re looking purely at libraries,” Cllr Holden said. “But when you’re running an organisation you have to think about the knock-on effect within the organisation and take it all into consideration.
“The goalposts keep changing. The way they have approached the whole thing is wrong from the beginning. They need to buy themselves time or it’s going to get very messy.”
Dorset County Council offers new books to help struggling libraries
4:00pm Wednesday 27 April 2011
County Hall bosses have improved their offer to the communities they hope will take on 20 threatened libraries – but campaigners say it still isn’t good enough.
Dorset County Council says it will offer between 300 and 500 new books a year to libraries from which it plans to withdraw funding in a bid to save £800,000 a year.
The council has also pledged public computers with access to broadband and the council’s library management system, supported by County Hall IT workers.
Tim Lee, acting chairman of library friends group AdLib, said the amended offer was a “very welcome improvement”, but went “nowhere near” solving the problems faced by smaller libraries.
The council says 80 per cent of library visits take place at the county’s 14 larger libraries, and says communities could raise charges for access to library buildings that could be put to community use.
Debbie Ward, the council’s director for adult and community services, said the proposed package of support would meet local needs and come at no extra cost to the tax payer.
Support community libraries: Ad Lib Campaigner urges users to help facilities at risk
2:00pm Thursday 14 April 2011
Mrs Robertson, 67, who is also a member of the Friends of Charmouth Library group, described the county council’s proposal as ‘dire’ and said she would urge all library users – whether their library is safe or not – to back Ad Lib’s proposal.
She said: “Many innovative schemes have been presented by readers of the 20 smaller community libraries to Dorset County Council for easy, painless, and minimally-disruptive ways to save the required £800,000 to keep the whole library system open – Ad Lib’s proposal can achieve this. It requires a small reduction of total library hours across the system and a reduction in the amount spent on new books each year. By voting for proposal two and the minor inconveniences that may result, you will make all the difference to us – the difference between having no books and our libraries shut and being able to keep our libraries.”
Mrs Robertson added that some library users would have to travel more than 14 miles to reach one of the main libraries if the community ones closed. She said: “We 20 communities who currently have libraries will, if our libraries are closed, have to travel 14 or more miles to get to and from the next nearest library. More distant readers who normally use their nearest community library will have to travel even further. For the disadvantaged in our communities, the situation is especially dire. Buses are infrequent and expensive, the price of fuel rises and the disabled, elderly, mums with young families, families without cars and the low-waged are really going to struggle. ”
“Please help the 20 smaller community libraries to stay open.”
Lyme Regis: Library cuts all 'smoke and mirrors' claim
11:23am Wednesday 6 April 2011
Dorset County Council’s public consultation on library closures is all ‘smoke and mirrors’, campaigners have claimed. It is after a senior councillor failed to show up to a meeting with Lyme Regis campaigners to discuss how a more cost effective library service could be provided in the town. Members of the Save the Lyme Regis Library campaign had arranged a meeting at County Hall with senior council officers, West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin and Lyme county councillor Geoff Brierley. The county council’s head of cultural services Paul Leivers and library service manager Tracy Long both attended, but Coun Hilary Cox, cabinet member for community services, did not attend as expected.
A county council spokesman said: “The meeting had not been scheduled in her diary by the people who organised it, so she apologises for not knowing when and where it was taking place. Mrs Cox would have liked to attend the meeting.
Campaigners say they may look for community support to do ‘housekeeping’ jobs at the library. Coun Lorna Jenkin, who represents Lyme Regis Town Council, said: “This would save around £3,000 next year, 10 per cent of the annual Lyme Regis budget.”
Council protest: More than 1,000 take to the streets
11:30am Monday 4 April 2011
More than 1,000 protesters took to the streets to rally against a new library and council offices for Dorchester amid claims it is being pushed through undemocratically.
Mike Chaney of the Ad Lib campaign group also gave a speech to call on the proposed new £5million library to be scrapped as other libraries need to be saved from closure. He said: “Why when so much is being cut back is West Dorset District Council so out of step?” Mr Chaney criticised the plan to pay the money to build the library and then also spend £200,000 per year to use it. He added: “If it means closing half the other libraries I’m against it.”
Library campaigners must seek support
12:30pm Saturday 2 April 2011
Campaigners hoping to keep Beaminster Library open say they cannot do it without support from Dorset County Council. County councillor Rebecca Knox told members of Beaminster Town Council that the message from volunteers was clear – they need financial and professional help.
Coun Knox said: “There was a big meeting last week at Dorchester to discuss the threatened Libraries and it was extremely well attended and some very good speakers and a lot of opinions were put forward. The thrust of the meeting for those attending was that the county council needed to find another way of saving money rather than cutting community libraries. Beaminster group has submitted its first expression of interest to discuss its way forward.
“The Beaminster position is that it cannot go forward in any form whatsoever without the financial support of Dorset County Council for its book circulation and the expertise of a librarian to support the volunteers.”
Libraries fight: Why the council is in their bad books
1:30pm Thursday 31 March 2011
Campaigners fighting for Dorset’s libraries have accused the county council of misleading the public in the consultation over the service’s future.
The group claims the council has made its own proposal look like ‘an act of generosity’ in the wording of a questionnaire asking library users on their view on the two proposed alternatives, when the reality would be completely different. Ad Lib spokesman Mike Chaney, who is chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library, said: “Unless you look carefully you’d think that the council’s proposal that communities should take over their library buildings is an act of generosity. What the council doesn’t spell out is that by taking over libraries, people could find they’ve undertaken what could become a real burden – all for a measly bookclub, not a real library.”
Ad Lib is encouraging people to use the questionnaire to show their support for its proposed alternative. Chairman Graham Lee said: “These questionnaires, which are in every library, show there are two ways of finding the money Dorset needs to save from its library costs. There is the county’s plan of closing 60 per cent of branch libraries – and there’s our proposal which would save slightly more money and keep our local libraries."
Libraries fight: County council invites people to have their say
1:30pm Thursday 31 March 2011
Hilary Cox, the council’s cabinet member for community services, said: “We recognise that every local community is unique and that one size does not fit all. We want to consult with a wide range of audiences, including community leaders, local councils, library users and residents to ensure all views are heard. It is also very important that we hear from people who never set foot inside a library. In many ways, they are the silent majority and we want to know what kind of a service they would like to see in Dorset, what might make them more inclined to use their local library. Questionnaires are now available in all libraries and online for people to let us know their views and the impact the proposal will have on them individually."
West Dorset: Have your say on proposed library cuts
11:55am Wednesday 30 March 2011
One questionnaire is aimed at people who use – or would use – the 20 threatened libraries, including Lyme and Charmouth, and another questionnaire is aimed at users of the saved libraries, such as Bridport.
Representatives for the threatened libraries met with council chiefs at a seminar last week as part of the consultation, when they discussed the terms on which the communities could take over the running of the libraries.
Mrs Robinson [Hazel Robinson, acting chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library] said they came away from the event at the Dorford Centre in Dorchester with a slightly more positive view. “It is a very guarded optimism because there is a long way to go,” she said. Mrs Robinson said the meeting was ‘quite hostile’ towards the library bosses.
Marshwood Vale county councillor Col Geoffrey Brierley said the meeting had an element of ‘predetermination’. He said: “This particular meeting was held on the premise that communities would take over the libraries. It was quite clear from the meeting that nobody there was pre-disposed to take over the libraries from the county council.”
The consultation has been extended until June 13 but Col Brierley said it ‘still isn’t good enough’, because new councils would only have chance to hold one meeting before it ends.
Library friends' plea to start a new chapter
1:30pm Monday 28 March 2011
Your library needs you. That’s the call from campaigners in Sturminster Newton bidding to save their library from a Dorset County Council closure programme. More than 100 people met recently at the town’s Exchange arts centre and agreed to form a “friends” group of library supporters. Town councillor Joe Rose, who was nominated acting chairman of the newly-formed Friends of Sturminster Library group, said the purpose of its inaugural meeting would be to “plan a campaign to save the library”. He added: “Like all rural services, the library is vital to those who use it. The crunch question will be, ‘Do we retain it in its current location?’ “It’s a 1960s, flat-roofed building, which you could argue is a liability. The Exchange is one option: it’s in the centre of town and has good access.”
Meanwhile, plans to save neighbouring Stalbridge library from closure now include extending the building to create a community hub. Tim Lee, the chairman of the Friends of Stalbridge Library, said relocating the town’s community office would allow volunteers for both services to run the library – and said the move might allow the library to extend its hours.
Classical guitarist Partington entertains crowd in Puddletown
5:00pm Sunday 27 March 2011
Mr Partington ... said: “I was pleased to see those who came to the concert for the libraries and I think everybody had a good time. There’s a really strong feeling of coming together for the library and a real sense of community where people are supporting a common cause. It’s really nice to feel that I can be a part of that.”
Mike Chaney, of Friends of Puddletown Library, said the group was raising cash for its ‘fighting fund’, which will enable the villagers to fund the library themselves if the county council decides to pull the plug on funding. He said: “This was the first fundraising event we’ve held so it’s a good start and we will continue with our efforts.
“We’re in discussions with the county council about what’s going to happen. Where there’s life there’s hope but if the council does make the cuts, we’ll do our best to supply the village with some sort of cultural centre.”
Library campaigners remain unconvinced by council's offer
12:00pm Thursday 24 March 2011
Chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library group Mike Chaney, who is also spokesman for the Ad Lib (Association of Dorset Libraries) campaign group, said the offer was outlined to the library supporters and they were asked if they thought it could work.
He said concerns were raised among library representatives that they couldn’t afford to take on the buildings and some lacked willing volunteers.
Mr Chaney added: “It was an interesting and worthwhile discussion but we had no real evidence that the offer made to us back in December is going to be improved.
“The feeling among Ad Lib members is that without a more regularly circulating supply of books and a place for public access computers what we were being offered would not be libraries in any sense of the word. Mr Chaney said that without a regularly updated supply of books people will soon stop coming to the libraries.
Former mayor's plea to keep Wyke Regis library open
3:30pm Wednesday 23 March 2011
Alderman Roy Gainey, who served on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council for more than 50 years and holds the title of freedom of the borough, used to head the local library committee. He recalls using his casting vote as chairman which enabled a library to be built at Wyke Regis in the 1960s.
Mr Gainey said the council should find the funding for the library at Wyke which he described as a ‘great community asset.’ He described how he and others fought to get the library built, mainly because of calls from naval families. ... “I proposed the council find a site for a branch library because there was a clear need in the community.
WEST DORSET TO WESTMINSTER: MP Oliver Letwin's column
11:33am Wednesday 23 March 2011
To judge by my postbag, almost no local topic has caused so much interest recently as the question of the fate of our community libraries.
The Bridport area is rich in these libraries. As well as the main library in South Street, Bridport, (whose future is not in question), there are much-treasured libraries at Burton Bradstock, Beaminster, Charmouth and Lyme Regis. In fact, no part of Dorset is more fully served by libraries than the south west of West Dorset.
The feeling in favour of these libraries is very understandably strong. A few days back, when I attended a meeting in Charmouth, the hall was packed to the rafters. Letters and emails keep pouring in on the subject.
I think that the reason for this is the sense that the libraries constitute part of the fabric of civilised life, even in an internet age. Alongside our schools, they are a sign of the literacy of our society, which is in turn one of the foundations of the civilisation of our society.
I am delighted, therefore, to be able to report that my latest conversations with the county council make me very optimistic that we will find a way for the county to save the money it needs while continuing to provide a sufficient infrastructure for the community libraries to prosper.
Bournemouth council's budget will need to be cut by £10.5m
12:00pm Monday 21 March 2011
[Bournemouth] Council leader Councillor Peter Charon insists a plan to reduce the costs of procurement will pay off and avoid the need for the cuts to services such as libraries and lollipop patrols which have hit other areas. And he pledged: “No libraries will be cut in the next four years of a Conservative administration."
Library truths
10:40am Monday 21 March 2011
Letter from Mike Chaney, Ad Lib (the Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries)
I refer to the report on the ‘consultation’ over the future of the 20 Dorset Libraries under threat of closure (Echo, March 9). You quote the councillor who is driving through these closures as saying that the threatened libraries issue only 16 per cent of all the books lent out by the Dorset Library Service.
The county council’s own figures show that over the past eight years the proportion of books lent out by the village and small town libraries now in the council’s sights has gone up by nearly 10 per cent. They are steadily increasing in their popularity. In the last year for which figures are available they lent out 27 per cent of Dorset’s total book issues – significantly more than Mrs Cox claims.
In that same period, of course, not only has the proportion of books issued by the bigger libraries gone down but the number of books issued by them has fallen by well over 800,000 a year.
And when you look at the financial efficiency of the smaller libraries you see that the county council is just wrong-headed to try to kill them off. What the library service bosses seem not to want us to know is that, when it comes to the cost of lending books, the little ones do the job far more cheaply than the bigger ones. Is the council so scared of a legal challenge to its draconian plans that, in desperation, it is trying to bamboozle us with false figures?
Charmouth: MP's backing buoys library campaigners
10:40am Friday 18 March 2011
Hazel Robinson, acting chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, said: “What we were delightedly surprised to hear was that Oliver Letwin said he agreed that no libraries should be shut down and he thought that far more imaginative solutions should be sought. He emphasised that the budgetary cuts had still to be made but he could see several different options for being able to do that, even though most of them would require some volunteers and that some income producing activities would probably need to be undertaken. That was exactly what our point had been all along.”
Michael Partington to play charity concert to save Puddletown’s library
2:00pm Monday 14 March 2011
Mr Partington, one of the leading classical guitarists in America, will be holding a concert to help raise cash for the group fighting to save the village library that is under threat of closure.
Mike Chaney, of Friends of Puddletown Library, said the group was raising cash for its ‘fighting fund’, which will enable the village to fund the library themselves if Dorset County Council does decide to pull the plug on funding. He said: “This concert will help the fighting fund, keep the fighting spirit, keep our profile up and give us a good time.
Charmouth: Library campaigners plan for the worst
12:30pm Friday 11 March 2011
Mrs Robinson [acting chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library] said Charmouth has a different ‘agenda’ to Lyme Regis, which is considering how the library service could be improved in the town by combining it with other facilities. “We have been trying to find a solution like that but so far we haven’t been able to because there isn’t the property in Charmouth to do it,” she said. “Our thoughts are now going towards keeping the building. We would have to pay all of the running costs and raise money.”
Communities meet with council leaders to save their libraries
1:00pm Wednesday 9 March 2011
... [Dorset] county council-organised seminar for representatives from towns and villages about the future running of libraries ... will be held at the Dorford Centre in Bridport Road, Dorchester, on Wednesday, March 23 from 9.30am to 1pm. Coun[cillor Hilary] Cox and the chairman of the policy development panel reviewing public libraries David Crowhurst will be attending, as well as senior managers from the library service.
Dorset library service manager Tracy Long said: “The seminar will provide the opportunity for representatives from the twenty local communities to discuss the community offer, let us know the type of additional support that may be required and to explore viable alternatives for a library service in their local community. The feedback from this day, alongside the other consultation work, will help inform final proposals.”
Library cuts ‘aren’t legal’
8:33am Monday 7 March 2011
Tim Lee, acting chairman of the Association of Dorset Libraries (AdLib), said proposals to transfer library buildings to communities would not meet the requirements of the Libraries and Museums Act 1964. “I’m pretty sure they are concerned that if they close the 20 libraries, or even a lesser number, there will be a legal challenge.”
DCC is consulting on two “offers” for the future of the service, including transferring libraries to be funded by communities through their town or parish councils, in a bid to save £800,000 a year. Mr Lee said government proposals to force third tier authorities to hold a referendum on precept rises over 2.5 per cent would make that offer unfeasible.
And he dismissed the council’s second offer for communities to run their libraries with off-the-shelf computer packages not connected to the Dorset Library Service.
But Cllr Hilary Cox, council cabinet member for community services, said: “The 1964 act is open to interpretation; we have to provide a suitable service that is accessible to as many people as possible.
“These 20 libraries only issue 16 per cent of all books that we issue every year. They are the smaller libraries, some are very close to neighbouring libraries and open a few hours every week. We will be looking at encouraging communities to take them over and extend their use, which we believe is a better use of our reduced resources, while concentrating our efforts on improving the main libraries. Unfortunately library usage has reduced dramatically.”
Lyme Regis: Imaginative suggestions to save library
11:40am Thursday 3 March 2011
The Save the Lyme Regis Library group said the priority was to retain a library service and has come up with ‘imaginative’ suggestions to secure its future.
The campaigners said they were feeling more optimistic following a meeting last Friday with West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin. Lyme Regis campaigner Anita Williams and town councillor Lorna Jenkin met with Mr Letwin in Dorchester.
Ms Williams said: “We know our library building is incredibly expensive to run, but we find it really frustrating that lots of ideas have been put forward but Dorset County Council have not been interested in talking about them. Now they want to shut us down without talking about something that might make a difference. We need to be thinking about other options. There is a suggestion to run a library out of an annexe at St Michael’s Business Centre because there’s already planning consent.”
Mr Letwin welcomed the suggestions and said he was ‘determined’ to change something. He said: “I think that the sort of plans they are talking about are very imaginative and I think we could end up with something better than what we have currently. I’m determined to make that happen and I’m in discussions with the county council about all of this” The MP said he had already been in contact with Coun Hilary Cox, cabinet member for community services, and Paul Leivers, head of cultural services, to discuss the provision of library services throughout West Dorset.
Mr Letwin also confirmed at the meeting that Lyme Regis residents had been contacting him in droves and the town was definitely ‘on the radar’.
Ms Williams said: “I congratulate Lyme residents on really getting behind the library campaign and making their views heard and I would urge them to continue to write to Mr Letwin and to DCC to make it clear that we need a library in Lyme Regis.”
Councillor Ian Lancashire makes Bournemouth library promise
2:00pm Thursday 24 February 2011
... Councillor Ian Lancashire, cabinet member for arts and culture on Conservative-controlled Bournemouth council. The council is on course to set a budget without closing a library or sacking any of the service’s staff.
“We have no intention at the moment of closing any libraries,” says Cllr Lancashire, adding that they perform “quite a valuable role socially”, especially for older people who can easily feel isolated. Being a librarian is a “highly skilled job”, he adds. “There may be opportunities for more volunteers in the library to assist generally, but there’s no reduction in the number of full time qualified, experienced librarians.”
“The reason we’re not closing libraries and reducing services and hours is because we planned over a year ago for the reduced budget funding from government,” he says. “We’ve looked at economies and efficiencies and introduced them over the last year so we were more ready to head off the cut that we’ve had.”
The key to keeping libraries, he says, will be to offer other services in the same buildings. "It’s not just a case of borrowing a book or a CD but you can go there and there will be other providers of services as well,” he says, citing Kinson’s new library at The Hub as an example. “Although we’ve got no intention of closing any libraries, there is a possibility that we might look at making more libraries bigger, better and more like Kinson.”
“No matter how stretched things are, we have to prioritise and that’s something we don’t want to lose, our library service,” he says. “It’s something not worth losing.”
Lyme Regis: Library cuts feared despite pledges
12:06pm Wednesday 23 February 2011
Lyme Regis campaigner Anita Williams has expressed her deep concern over the proposals. She said: “Although the council appears to be agreeing to enter into a full consultation on the library service, I am concerned they are paying only ‘lip service’ to the communities and will continue with their plans to close the threatened libraries, rather than showing any real effort to find an alternative way to save costs within the library service.”
Campaigners from Lyme Regis made the 60-mile round trip to Dorchester on Thursday to join the protest on the steps of County Hall. Marshwood Vale county councillor Col Geoffrey Brierley held faith with his constituents and was the only member to join the protest, holding a ‘Save our Libraries’ placard. Ms Williams said they were grateful to Col Brierley’s for his continuing support and for ‘fighting their corner’ at the meeting.
The council will make its final decision in July. Ms Williams has written to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and to West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin to seek clarification on the proposed cuts. She is due to meet with Mr Letwin to discuss the issue.
Dorset libraries and lollipop battle set to continue
2:00pm Friday 18 February 2011
Plans by Dorset County Council to close 20 libraries and to withdraw funding for lollipop patrols will go out to further consultation. Campaigners won the concession after impassioned speeches to a meeting of all councillors in the public session of an all-day meeting held yesterday.
Dorset cuts crisis: Ray of hope in battle for libraries
10:00am Friday 18 February 2011
Hope has been offered to Dorset’s 20 under-threat libraries after councillors decided to look at ways of making £800,000 of savings elsewhere. They voted for a resolution to consider ideas proposed by campaign group Ad Lib that could keep all 20 libraries open.
The group suggests cutting opening hours of all libraries by 10 per cent, reducing headquarters staff by the same amount and halving the money spent on books.
But councillors at the full council meeting of Dorset County Council also voted to proceed with a three-month consultation on a proposal to hand over the libraries to community groups. Funding for these libraries would then be withdrawn in 2012 if enough volunteers are not available to run them.
Library campaigners filled the council chamber’s upper tier and roundly applauded the second resolution, which was proposed by Councillor Geoffrey Brierley and unanimously voted for.
Coun Brierley said: “If you look at this petition, you’ll see that there’s very strong feeling about these libraries. Without books being available from the county council, how on earth will we survive? We need books and we need computers. “I propose that the libraries service examine ways in which the 20 threatened libraries can be supported by making savings elsewhere in the library system.”
Councillor Hilary Cox, cabinet member for the environment, said Ad Lib’s proposals were more ‘salami slicing’. “Suggesting we do more salami slicing of our staff, books and hours and waiting for things to get better financially does not seem like the right way forward,” she said. “What’s the good of a library if it’s hardly open?” She added that there are 89,000 active library users out of a population of 480,000 in Dorset.
Speaking after the meeting, Ad Lib spokesman Mike Chaney, of Puddletown, said the two-hour debate offered some hope to library campaigners. He added: “There’s a chink of hope for us now and a bit of light. We are delighted with the support Coun Brierley gave us – he saved the day. “However, the two resolutions seem to be contradictory. They are saying we are taking 20 libraries away and when that happens do we want to take over the library? “How can you answer that question if the Policy Development Panel is also asked questions on how to find ways of keeping the library open?”
Supporters of Littlemoor Library also spoke at the meeting and said they relied on the facility to improve literacy levels in the community. Lodmoor councillor Brian Ellis said: “There is a social deprivation issue. Children have said that they see Littlemoor Library as a place of sanctuary, a place they can go to in somewhat chaotic lives.” Littlemoor resident Peter Ruffell said: “We want to tell people to get involved in the consultation and to keep using the library before they lose it.”
A final decision will be made by the council in July.
Dorset cuts crisis: County council agrees on £31million savings
10:00am Friday 18 February 2011
The Tory-led authority staved off an attempt by the Liberal Democrat group to find savings elsewhere in the budget instead of hitting frontline services such as day centres, youth services, lollipop patrols and libraries. The Lib-Dems calculated that £4.2million worth of savings could be found in the budget including taking money from the balances, hacking the publicity budget and reducing the amount the council spends on consultants, agency and temporary staff. The group also failed to get the council to review controversial capital schemes such as the Purbeck schools shake-up and the new Dorchester Library.
Around two-thirds of the savings will be found through efficiencies including the effects of a two-year pay freeze for all staff and changes to terms and conditions.
D-Day for Dorset as budget to cut services and jobs gets go ahead
8:09am Friday 18 February 2011
A multi-million pound savings package that will cut frontline services and trigger up to 500 redundancies at Dorset County Council has been rubber-stamped. After months of vigorous debate and behind-the-scenes number crunching, councillors have voted through a programme of cuts worth £31.1m for the new financial year, which begins in April.
Staff reward packages have been targeted for some of the biggest savings in the medium term strategy. A two-year pay freeze is expected to save £3.5m, while changes to terms and conditions of employment have earmarked for savings of £2.63m over three years.
But it is the council’s choice of targets for smaller savings that have drawn the greatest public outcry with proposals to close libraries and withdraw the salaries of school lollipop crossing staff generating a total saving of £1m.
A petition of 13,000 signatures was presented to the meeting by campaigners fighting proposals to close 20 of 34 services run by the council’s Dorset Library Service in a bid to save £800,000.
The controversial offer could see the threatened libraries shut in 2012 if communities do not step forward to run them on a voluntary basis. Tim Lee, acting chairman for the Association of the Friends of Dorset Libraries (Adlib), presented an alternative package to realise the £800,000 savings target. His detailed proposals included plans for a 10 per cent cut in opening hours for libraries open more than 10 hours a week, and to reduce staff costs at library service HQ by 10 per cent. He also suggested reducing the book budget by 50 per cent to £400,000 a year for four years until economic conditions improved.
Protesters plea against county council cuts - updated
2:20pm Thursday 17 February 2011
Confusion reigns over the future of 20 threatened libraries despite an impassioned two-hour debate at Dorset County Council this morning. Councillors voted to go out to consultation on a proposal to transfer 20 of the council’s 34 libraries to community groups, with funding to be withdrawn in 2012 if the offer is not accepted. But they also voted to consider detailed proposals from library supporters group AdLib to reach the council’s £800,000 savings target without the threat of closure.
Speaking after the meeting, Paul Leivers, the council’s head of cultural services, said he saw no contradiction in the two resolutions. “We are consulting on ways and means of transferring libraries to communities,” he said. “We are also trying to find a range of views and thoughts about the future of the Dorset library service.”
AdLib’s acting chairman Tim Lee presented detailed proposals to find £800,000 in savings alongside a petition of 13,000 signatures. He said the councillors draft proposals were “entirely unsatisfactory.” Mr Lee proposed halving the book budget to £400,000 for four years, reducing opening hours by 10 per cent except at libraries which open for less than ten hours, and cutting staff costs at library service HQ by 10 per cent.
After the vote he told the Echo: “I am pleased by the overwhelming support shown to our proposals and by the fact that they will now be carefully considered. “It’s too soon for celebration, but it’s a big step forward.”
Earlier cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Hilary Cox had dismissed AdLib’s proposals as “salami slicing” a “lean” service that had already been restructured.
Lyme Regis: Library campaigners state their case
10:48am Wednesday 16 February 2011
Adlib, the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries, will be representing all the at-risk libraries at the meeting in Dorchester. Campaigners from the newly-formed Save Our Lyme Regis Library group will also be at the meeting to show support. Anyone who is able to join the protest is asked to be at County Hall at 9.30am.
But campaigners in Lyme say they are becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of consultation and conflicting information from the authority. Anita Williams, leader of the campaign group, said: “We are disappointed by Dorset County Council’s failure to enter into meaningful discussions before making proposals to decimate the library network in Dorset.” Ms Williams, a solicitor, added: “As more becomes known about the legal position, it is clear to us that Dorset County Council have failed to consult adequately in accordance with the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.” The Lyme group has set up a new website http://www.aroundlymeregis.co.uk/ to keep residents updated.
Friends of Charmouth Library acting chairman Hazel Robinson said they had made suggestions to the council’s policy development panel. She said: “Among other people, we have suggested there should be some sort of merger of posts and functions with Bournemouth and Poole to reduce central costs, which are disproportionate to the amount actually being spent on the libraries themselves.”
Other suggestions include ‘spreading the pain’ across all of the county’s 34 libraries and sharing trained staff and volunteers.
Marshwood Vale county councillor Col Geoffrey Brierley said among the suggestions was changing the law to allow libraries to charge around 20p for books. He said: “If the library closes and volunteers created a charitable trust to run the library – which is probably what we are looking at in Charmouth – then we will have to raise money to run the library and how else can we raise it other than charging for books? Col Brierley said Dorset residents had been writing to West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin ‘in droves’, asking him to push for a change in the law to allow charging.
West Dorset: Hundreds protest against cuts
10:21am Wednesday 16 February 2011
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets to fight for the future of Dorset’s public services. Around 400 marchers banged drums and blew whistles as they marched through Dorchester chanting: “You say cut back, we say fight back.” Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg marched alongside lollipop men and women, librarians, local authority workers, charity workers and students, who all called for the authority to save their jobs and services.
Members of the Ad Lib campaign group will hold a demonstration about library closures before Thursday’s meeting.
Library closure will mean forfeit of £99,000 bequest
9:00am Tuesday 15 February 2011
Dorset County Council will have to return £59,000 from a local woman’s bequest if it decides to close West Moors library this week. Resident Daphne Harrison left the village £137,000 in 1994. Nine years ago, £99,000 of this was passed to the library, and the parish council used some of it to build a computer suite.
The parish also entered into a 15-year agreement with county on the basis that if they closed the library within five years, they would have to hand all the money back. After that date, the repayment falls by 10 per cent a year. The two councils are in discussion over whether the pact started in 2002 or 2003.
More than 1,500 West Moors residents have already signed a petition to save the library.
Library campaigners urge for manager merge across Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole
12:00pm Monday 14 February 2011
Library campaigners are pressing for Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole to merge their library service managers, saving up to £250,000 and sparing 20 rural libraries threatened with closure.
On Thursday Dorset County Council will consider library closure proposals in light of a 13,000-strong petition and hear of discussions with Borough of Poole and Borough of Bournemouth managers about “shared working” to make further savings. No decisions have yet been made.
Chickerell library's future?
9:44am Monday 14 February 2011
A public meeting about the future of Chickerell library is being held ... the library is under threat of closure because of proposed spending cuts so the meeting has been called to see if there is sufficient local interest to form a Friends of Chickerell Library group who could help to keep the library open but staffed by volunteers.
Friends say it 'is not an option' to close Colehill Library
12:00pm Friday 11 February 2011
Taking over Colehill Library “is not an option for us”, say the band of dedicated Friends who have seen three closure attempts in the last 10 years.
The Friends, who say the library is well used by children on their way home from the five first schools and one middle school, heard from DLS manager Tracy Long that they or the parish council could take it on for a peppercorn lease. The net revenue budget is £29,000, but they could charge for books, she said. If not, the building would probably be sold and readers could use mobile libraries and ebooks instead.
One member said: “Taking ownership of our prefabricated building, which is neglected anyway, is not an option for us.
Colehill contributed around 1,500 signatures to the 13,000 strong petition asking Dorset County council to reconsider the proposals at a budget meeting next Thursday.
Dorset: Battle to keep libraries running
11:04am Wednesday 9 February 2011
Hundreds of protesters packed into libraries in a bid to save them from closure. Residents arrived for organised read-ins at libraries and singer Billy Bragg performed and made a speech in Charmouth. Families took out the maximum number of books to prove how popular and valued their libraries are before council budget meetings.
An action group has started up in Beaminster. Headed by Councillor Rebecca Knox, the group consists of councillors, volunteer librarians, representatives of ten town reading groups and other residents. Coun Knox said: “This is working towards the business case for the retention of our library and how we would like to see it in the future.” The group has until the end of May to submit its business plan.
But there are those in the town who fear that amateur run libraries are unlikely to succeed. Angela Seckington of Beaminster WI has started a petition to keep the library open. She said: “Communities will be given the opportunity to take over running the buildings and services. If it doesn’t involve the council, it is a non starter and you don’t know what you are letting yourself in for with maintenance and insurance.” She added: “There is a great difference between volunteers helping to keep a library open and volunteers taking the library over.”
Minette Walters joins Dorset library battle
11:00am Wednesday 9 February 2011
Award-winning author Minette Walters has joined the fight to save the 20 Libraries in Dorset being threatened with closure. She joins other Dorset celebrities Billy Bragg and Julian Fellowes who have both been actively outspoken against the cost saving plans by Dorset County Council.
The crime writer, who lives near Dorchester, said in a letter to County Hall that ‘it would be very short-sighted to guillotine rural libraries’. The writer also highlighted the fact that rural communities pay the same council tax as those in towns, but receive a tenth of the benefits. She added: “The opportunity to expand minds and self-educate through literature is immeasurable and particularly important for the young and the elderly on limited resources.
She called for rural libraries to be given a stay of execution. This would mean that the libraries could then find volunteers to maintain the fabric of the buildings until the council is once again in a position to fund them again.
Following sending the letter she told the Echo: ... “If people are offering voluntarily to keep libraries open so everybody is able to use them and borrow books, the council must help with supplying books.”
Last Saturday hundreds of protesters descended on libraries across Dorset in a bid to save them from closure. Residents attended organised ‘read-ins’ at libraries including Wyke Regis, Crossways, Lyme Regis. Many families across the county have also played a part in taking out the maximum amount of books available in a bid to prove how valuable and popular the service is.
Support shown for Dorset's threatened libraries in day of protest
11:00am Monday 7 February 2011
Passionate campaigners organised ‘read-ins’ while musician Billy Bragg performed at Charmouth library.
People staged a quiet but well-attended read-in at Lytchett Matravers library. They borrowed extra books, made sure they visited that day, and up to 20 people at a time sat down and read to back the campaign.
Wareham Library is not one of those currently in the firing line, but dozens still turned out to show their feeling over proposed cuts.
Hundreds protest over Dorset library cuts
10:00am Monday 7 February 2011
Hundreds of protesters descended on Libraries across Dorset in a bid to save them from closure. Residents arrived for organised ‘read-ins’ at libraries including Wyke Regis, Crossways, Lyme Regis and singer Billy Bragg performed and made a speech in Charmouth. Families took out the maximum number of books possible in a bid to prove how popular and valued their libraries are ahead of crunch council budget meetings.
At the protest in Wyke Regis a group of children listened to stories and hung messages of support on a ‘memory tree’.
Consultation pledge on Dorset library closures
2:00pm Saturday 5 February 2011
Cabinet member for community services Hilary Cox told fellow councillors that the offer to communities was ‘not set in stone’ and could be revised following a consultation process over the next three months.
“The offer we are going out to consultation on is only a proposed offer, it is not set in stone.There are ways that we think the offer can be improved but we need to hear from the communities on how to improve it, that is what we are consulting on".
Members of the cabinet agreed to recommend to full council that the proposed library strategy, which includes the withdrawal of funding from the 20 libraries, be approved.
Councillors also agreed to take into account the findings of the policy development panel that is currently working on the review of the libraries and will be considering feedback from the consultation.
Dorset County Council say plans to close libraries are 'not set in stone'
12:00pm Friday 4 February 2011
Community Services chief, Cllr Hilary Cox, pledged further meetings with friends groups and a policy development panel of councillors before a finalised “offer” was put out for public consultation.
Protest singer Bragg is behind library fight
9:15am Friday 4 February 2011
SINGER songwriter Billy Bragg will be protesting outside Charmouth Library on Saturday. Protesters fighting for the future of their library say they are ‘ecstatic’ that the local celebrity, who lives in nearby Burton Bradstock, has chosen to support them.
West Dorset: 13,000 say no to library closures
11:05am Wednesday 2 February 2011
Campaigners fighting to save 20 libraries from closure have collected 13,636 signatures in just a week and presented the petition to Dorset County Council. In Charmouth, 1,164 people put their names to the petition and a further 502 signatures came from Lyme Regis.
Hazel Robinson, acting chairman of the Friends of Charmouth Library, said: “We collected 1,164 signatures from Charmouth and the outlying areas, which considering the amount of our population [1,400] I think is an excellent result.” A peaceful protest was held outside Charmouth Library on Saturday when placards and banners read ‘Leave our Library Alone’, and children declared ‘Reading is for Life’.
On Monday night, over 100 people packed into a public meeting at the Woodmead Halls in Lyme. ... The meeting heard that it costs £29,000 a year to run the Lyme facility.
Beaminster: Residents fight to save library
10:31am Wednesday 2 February 2011
Dorset County Councillor Rebecca Knox told a Beaminster Town Council meeting that the county’s community overview committee wanted to have time to explore the potential for savings to town libraries that could help keep rural ones open.
She said: “We can make a good case geographically and economically for a library in Beaminster.” The case is helped by the fact that the library has the second highest percentage increase in the number of book issues in the whole county, serves a population within an eight-mile radius and would help support shops in the town. The town supports nine reading groups – four in the WI alone – and Angela Seckington of the WI presented a 75-signature petition to the town council.
"E-books can plug the gap if we close libraries"
5:00pm Tuesday 1 February 2011
... the [Dorset] library service will rely on downloadable e-books and four existing mobile libraries to plug the gap left by rural libraries such as Colehill, Sturminster Newton and Upton. The empty buildings would probably be sold off.
Underused stops on the four mobile library’s routes will be withdrawn and new ones added, she [Tracy Long Dorset Library Service manager] said, as at the moment some stops issue just 10 books in six months
Dorset libraries battle: 13,000 people sign petition
11:00am Tuesday 1 February 2011
Campaigners fighting to save 20 libraries from closure collected 13,636 signatures in just a week from people supporting their cause and presented the petition to Dorset County Council.
As the petition had more than 1,000 signatures it will now be discussed at the next full council meeting on February 17.
MP Annette Brooke joins fight to save Dorset's libraries
10:30am Sunday 30 January 2011
A POOLE MP has taken the fight to retain Dorset’s libraries to the House of Commons.
Annette Brooke, MP for Mid-Dorset and North Poole, called for support for the 20 libraries faced with closure.
Mrs Brooke said libraries were the “heart and soul of our communities”. During the Commons debate, she said: “We want to equip our children with the skills that they need for later life. Surely we must build on the use of libraries.” The Dorset MP added there were innovative ways to get more people into libraries that needed to be backed up by skilled librarians and other staff.
Library petitions need 1,000 names to save services in Dorset
1:30pm Thursday 27 January 2011
More than 70 people attended a meeting at Wyke Regis Working Men’s Club on Tuesday evening to discuss plans to fight the proposed £800,000 cuts to library services.
The group will be holding a sit-in at Wyke Regis Library on February 5, from 12.15pm. All supporters are welcome.
West Dorset: Campaigns to save libraries gathers pace
11:18am Wednesday 26 January 2011
THE campaigns to save Lyme Regis and Charmouth libraries have stepped up another gear this week.
Lyme campaigners are holding a public meeting at Woodmead Halls on Monday, January 31, which everyone is urged to attend.
A protest will be held outside Charmouth Library at 11am on Saturday which residents are invited to join.
Review spells hope for Dorset's libraries
6:00pm Tuesday 25 January 2011
THE fight for 20 Dorset libraries will continue after an influential committee demanded a closer look at closure plans. The Community Overview Committee has referred back to a policy development panel proposals to withdraw funding from over half of Dorset County Council’s libraries.
Fighting very dirty over ‘her’ libraries
9:00am Tuesday 25 January 2011
LETTER from Mike Chaney, Spokesman for Ad Lib (association of friends of Dorset libraries) and chairman of Puddletown Library’s friends.
"Dorset County Council has sunk to fighting dirty in its determination to close 60 per cent of its libraries. The council’s libraries manager has just ruled that those campaigning against this planned carnage may not put petitions in any of “her” libraries.
And we council-tax payers quaintly thought they were “our” libraries. What an exquisite irony it is that, in her argument for these closures, Dorset’s Director of Adult and Community Services tells us that her vision for “our” libraries is that they should foster “a love of knowledge to enhance lives and build communities”. As long, it seems, as any knowledge we acquire in libraries has been approved by council bosses.
They can display their own propaganda, telling us how vital it is that our libraries be closed. But we can’t be allowed to point out that their policies will wreck communities, not build them. Vision is OK, it seems, as long as it’s their vision - not ours."
Campaigners fight to save their libraries
4:30pm Friday 21 January 2011
Campaigners fighting to save Dorset’s threatened Libraries have been putting their case before councillors. ... Objectors to the council proposals addressed a meeting of the authority’s community overview committee as it considered a report on the plans.
Graham Lee, chairman of the newly-formed Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries or Ad Lib, said his group was ‘determined that Dorset should have a good and effective library service’. He also criticised the council for spending £6million over 25 years on a new library for Dorchester on the Charles Street development site while it was cutting funding elsewhere.
Jan Robertson, who was fighting the closure of Charmouth Library, told the meeting: “Cutting our smaller libraries is hitting the vulnerable.”
Wendy Davies from the Lyme Forward local area partnership asked members to think about the wider role libraries played as a community hub. She said: “It should be recognised that in rural areas, including Lyme Regis, the Library Service is almost the sole amenity available.”
There was support from a number of councillors for the concerns raised by the library campaigners. Coun David Milstead also hit out at the decision by the council to shell out on the new Dorchester library on the one hand while threatening to withdraw funding on the other.
However, cabinet member for community services Hilary Cox defended the proposals. She said: “We in Dorset have been having a champagne library service for many years. We are one of the highest spenders per head of population and we have the greatest number of libraries available per head of population when for some years we have been one of the lowest-funded authorities.” Coun Cox added: “The budgetary constraints will just not allow us to continue such a high level of funding for our population.”
The committee voted to recommend the future strategy of the Dorset Library Service to the council’s cabinet and also that they take into account the work of the policy development panel which was looking into the library proposals.
Campaigners have vowed to continue their fight to save Dorset’s threatened libraries.
At the meeting it was confirmed that after a period of consultation the decision will come before the community overview committee in June, which will then make a recommendation to the full council meeting in July. In the meantime, the council’s policy development panel will be discussing how the threatened libraries can be funded in other ways in the future.
Dorset libraries face the axe: Wyke Regis will decide plan of action
11:30am Thursday 20 January 2011
Friends of Wyke Regis Library in Weymouth are calling for residents to attend a meeting ... to decide on a plan of action. Chairman of the friends group, Rosemary Smith, said: “We’re going to try and get a campaign going because what they’re suggesting is just horrific. They’re talking about withdrawing funding from up to 20 libraries. They’ve talked about consulting people but they haven’t contacted our friends group".
She added: “It’s a wonderful service and it would be a terrible blow to lose it. We’ve been here before about four years ago when the county council proposed closing 13 libraries but because we all made such a fuss, they cut the hours but kept them open. This time they seem more determined so we’re going to have to work really hard. They’re talking about communities running libraries but it isn’t that easy. Yes increase volunteers’ hours but we need a librarian as well.”
Dorset libraries face the axe: The council will support core services
11:30am Thursday 20 January 2011
Dorset Library Service manager Tracy Long said: “The county council is proposing to cease funding for up to 20 community libraries. In total the county council is proposing to support a core network of 14 libraries plus the mobile library service and an access online service and resources. The local community are being invited to take ownership of their local library – with our support – before the proposed withdrawal of county council funding by April 2012.” She added: “If given the go-ahead, there will be a consultation with the community in March to talk in detail about the future.”
[Dorset] Cabinet member for community services Hilary Cox said: “It is essential that we reduce the funding available for non-essential services, while honouring our duties to all residents. The county council must now focus on library services it can deliver going forward. To achieve this, it is proposed that we have a smaller network of county council-supported library buildings, a continued provision of mobile library services and further investment accessed through our website.” She added: “I am confident that our proposals will provide a high quality, accessible library service, which is both sustainable and affordable.”
Dorset libraries face the axe: Campaigners will fight closures
11:30am Thursday 20 January 2011
Campaigners have pledged to fight the proposed closure of 20 Libraries across Dorset. They say the ‘blow’ to communities will hit the county’s old and young the hardest.
A report, which will go before the community overview committee on Thursday, recommends the council should pull funding from 20 of its 34 libraries. If given the go-ahead, it will then go before cabinet members on February 2, before a final decision is made by full council on February 17.
Libraries at risk include Wyke Regis, Chickerell, Littlemoor, Portland Tophill, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Crossways, Beaminster, Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Lyme Regis and Wool.
This would leave four main libraries open, including Weymouth and Dorchester, 10 town libraries including Bridport, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Swanage, Wareham and Blandford, and the provision of mobile library services and online services.
Mike Chaney, chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library group and spokesman for the newly-formed Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries (Ad Lib) said a delegation would be attending Thursday’s meeting to oppose the plans. He said: “We’re concerned for general cultural and literature reasons – libraries are part of English heritage – and for particular, smaller reasons because in villages like Puddletown, they serve very important social purposes. ... It would be a great shame if that aspect of village life was lost.” He added: “It seems pretty obvious that once the facility is gone that’s the end of the library – we won’t be able to open it again in five year’s time. It seems to be a permanent answer to a temporary problem.”
County councillor Les Ames, of Tophill, Portland, said it was ‘morally wrong’ to leave the island’s 14,000 people without a library. He said: “We shall be fighting as hard as we can to keep Portland Tophill library open because without it, it’s eight miles to the nearest library.
Beaminster library co-ordinator Elaine Bibby said county council involvement was vital to run the service. She said volunteers stepped in to help save the facility when the county council threatened to cut 13 of its libraries more than four years ago, but council support was needed to cover building rent of almost £5,000 a year. She added: “Computer access in the library building and the self-service counters will go because there would be no formal link. The books are rotated every six weeks now and all of that would go I imagine because if they could keep that going then why can’t they keep the library going? You will end up just with a building with some books in it.”
Library facing closure
11:02am Tuesday 18 January 2011
Littlemoor library has been named as one of twenty due for closure because of council spending cutbacks. If the proposal is implemented it will likely to come into force in March 2011.
Councillor for Littlemoor, Mark Tewkesbury said, “this will be a big blow for the area, it is the only base where everyone can access the Internet. Apart from holding a large range of books it is also the meeting place for local groups. ... People come from Preston, Overcombe and Lodmoor to use the facility, it isn’t just Littlemoor that will lose out. In short, it plays vital role within our community, it is the heart of Littlemoor.
I shall be arranging a petition in the hope it will get the council to change its mind.
Closure would mean the only access we would have to a library would be the one in Weymouth. That would mean either a costly bus fare or paying parking charges.
Once closed there is very little chance of it ever being opened again. I urge everyone to sign the petition, the local shops will have them. We can’t afford to lose this valuable building.
West Dorset: Resident fight closure of libraries
10:47am Wednesday 19 January 2011
Lyme Regis and Charmouth residents are being called upon to help save their community’s at-risk libraries. Both are on a list of 20 libraries earmarked for closure by Dorset County Council.
Petitions have now been launched in Lyme and Charmouth in the fight to save both libraries.
At Lyme Regis, the town council is backing the campaign and has sent a letter to DCC. Town clerk Mike Lewis said: “There are only two options – either the community controls the library and runs it itself, or it closes. There seems to be no mid way where the hours are reduced slightly. “It is a vital service at this end of the county.” A petition launched on Saturday ... Residents are urged to sign the petition ...
Charmouth Library was threatened with closure in 2004 and again in 2006. A group of concerned villagers met with Marshwood Vale county councillor Col Geoffrey Brierley on Saturday. They said there has been a ‘total blackout’ of information on the proposed closures. The group said: “Closing Charmouth Library will be terrible for our population. Dorset is a rural county with over 30 per cent of the population served by the 20 libraries threatened with closure.” They said the closure would impact particularly on the elderly, mothers and toddlers, schoolchildren, and book groups. “Loss of Charmouth Library will cause significant deprivation to residents of Charmouth, surrounding villages and a large local area,” they said. ... The Charmouth petition will be at various locations in the village.
Library users hit back over funding cuts plan
11:00am Tuesday 18 January 2011
...friends groups supporting libraries in the [Dorset] county are clubbing together in a bid to fight back, forming the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries.
Graham Lee, chairman of the friends of Lytchett Matravers library, said the proposals had been put forward with ‘absolutely no consultation’ with friends groups. “We realise that there is a need to be prudent in the present financial climate, but what we would like to see is a review taken right across the board,” he said. What they’ve done is single out community libraries and not those in towns.” ... Villagers say it brings the community together and that they would be, quite simply, lost without it.
Cuts earmarked by Dorset County Council
3:00pm Monday 17th January 2011
"[Dorset] Libraries including those at Colehill, Corfe Castle, Lytchett Matravers, Stalbridge, West Moors, and Wool could be closed if cabinet bosses approve closure plans.
But the Daily Echo understands that libraries in Corfe Mullen, Sturminster Newton, Upton, Lyme Regis, and Littlemoor could be struck from the closure list at a meeting of the Community Overview Committee on Thursday. ...
In a report to go before cabinet bosses on Wednesday, February 2, the council’s library service manager, Tracy Long, warns that the council must re-prioritise. She said: “The county council must now focus on the library service it can deliver going forward with a budget which is 70 per cent of the budget four years ago. It is proposed that funding will cease for up to 20 communities where there is currently a library.”
Ms Long’s report contains better news for libraries in small towns across the Daily Echo’s circulation area. Libraries in Blandford, Gillingham, Highcliffe, Shaftesbury, Swanage, Verwood, Wareham, and Wimborne have been listed for continued supply of books and DVDs, and for providing activities and events.
County Hall book bosses had planned to trim £334,000 from their annual budget, saving £143,000 from a reduced stock of books, £164,000 from ‘reconfiguration’ and £30,000 from improved supply management. But now the full extent of government funding cuts is known, library chiefs are warning of the need to save ‘in excess’ of £650,000 for the coming financial year and warning more savings will be needed in 2012/13 and 2013/14. “The level of these savings is yet to be confirmed,” wrote Ms Long.
The Library List: Beaminster; Burton Bradstock; Charmouth; Chickerell; Colehill; Corfe Castle; Corfe Mullen; Crossways; Littlemoor; Lyme Regis; Lytchett Matravers; Portland Tophill; Portland Underhill; Puddletown; Stalbridge; Sturminster Newton; Upton; West Moors; Wool; Wyke Regis."
Christchurch cafe's court battle to stay open fails
12:30pm Friday 14th January 2011
"Terry Kelly and his legal advisers were trying to overturn planning consent granted by the council to itself to extend Christchurch library. The £2.5m plus refurbishment and extension of the library – which county bosses say is too small for the needs of the town – would mean the closure of Kelly’s Kitchen. ... Despite Dorset County Council facing a £48.6m funding shortfall, they say the plan remains in their capital programme."
Poole Lighthouse Arts Centre and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra will suffer cuts
12:30pm Saturday 8th January 2011
[Poole] "Libraries, the mobile library service and spending on library stock has been safeguarded and there will be no change to opening hours or Poole Museum."
Friends could be answer for libraries
9:52am Monday 3 January 2011
LETTER from Ian Lewis (former head of Libraries - Dorset)
"£400,000 represents around £25 per annum on an average council tax bill. ... Let the library management create and administer a county-wide Friends of the Library Service. ... asked to make a voluntary donation of £10 to the costs of the library service ..."
Criticism over Dorset County Council’s use of volunteers
9:30am Sunday 2nd January 2011
Brian Strutton, the GMB’s national officer for public services, said: “We are going backwards as a nation in that councils are increasingly looking to volunteers to run local libraries, or even closing them. Even when Britain was not as wealthy as it was today we made it a priority to afford local libraries. Shame on the wealthy who live in these shire counties not prepared to pay taxes to keep the libraries open.”
West Dorset: Council cuts to bite deep
11:17am Wednesday 22 December 2010
In the same department [adult and community services] councillors backed a proposal to withdraw funding of up to 20 of the counties libraries, which would result in a saving of £861,000. Libraries in Beaminster, Burton Bradstock, Charmouth and Lyme Regis are among those that are in the firing line for the cuts although Bridport’s main library is safe.
THE CUTS: 'Everything will be taking a hit'
10:36am Thursday 16 December 2010
VOLUNTEER HOPES HIS PLAN WILL SAVE LIBRARY
Volunteer Mike Chaney said he hoped the community could help keep Puddletown Library open for as long as possible. Some of the 20 out of 34 libraries in Dorset that face closure could be kept open by community volunteers. Mr Chaney, of Puddletown, said: “In the long term I’m not sure a community, even an active one like this one, can keep the library going forever".
Council agrees £16m cuts package
8:43am Thursday 16 December 2010
[Dorset] Deputy leader, Cllr Hilary Cox, said libraries were a “non-life threatening” service and argued that keeping just 18 of 34 buildings would still leave 91 per cent of residents within five miles of a library.
West Dorset: Libraries face the axe in council cuts
12:02pm Wednesday 15 December 2010
Lyme [Regis] and Charmouth are among 20 of the county’s 34 libraries under threat in a bid to make savings of more than £417,000. Library users fear it will kill the heart of the communities, severely impact children’s education and isolate elderly people.
West Dorset: Volunteers fear libraries will close under council cuts
11:14am Wednesday 15 December 2010
Volunteers at Beaminster Library who help keep the town service open don’t see how it can continue without county council support. ... Rent for the building, which is close to £5,000 a year now, would have to be found. ... “Computer access in the library building and the self service counters will go because there would be no formal link. The books are rotated every six weeks now and all of that would go I imagine because if they could keep that going then why can’t they keep the library going? You will end up just with a building with some books in it.”
Libraries at risk also include Lyme Regis and Charmouth, although the main Bridport library is safe and villagers in Burton Bradstock are optimistic about saving their library.
Burton Bradstock residents have already been involved in long negotiations with the council and say they are ready to take on the[ir] library building. “You do need professional librarians to help run the library but so far as I know they won’t be withdrawing the hours they support us".
Thanks for thanks - and we're nearly ready to go on solar power!
4:17pm Friday 10 December 2010
Mr Keith Watson, Chairman of the Kinson Community Library Panel took the trouble to address the [Bournemouth] Council Chamber, thanking Members and officers for the wide range of services and facilities provided at Kinson Hub. He reminded us that the facility has become a central feature of community life in the area and he thanked the Council for securing the funding – a combination of Big Lottery Fund and Housing money - to make it happen.
The new building provides an integrated enquiry/reception area, a library including a special area for children and the first Headspace service in Bournemouth (an area designed for and with young people), a learning centre, meeting rooms, a children’s centre with crèche facilities, neighbourhood housing office, interview rooms for information and advice agencies including the Citizens Advice Bureau, and public toilets.
Dorset cuts: Consultation on future of Libraries
2:00pm Friday 10 December 2010
The library service, which has an annual budget of £5.3million and employs 158 staff, initially unveiled plans to save around £468,000 as part of Dorset County Council’s Meeting Future Challenges programme. ... possible savings ... in the next financial year, include withdrawing funding from as many as 20 of the 34 [libraries] to save £417,300 and a further £143,000 reduction in expenditure on books and materials. These measures will go before the council next week but exactly which libraries are affected has not yet been determined.
There are currently 34 libraries across the county, with four mobile libraries also visiting over 280 locations including residential homes and sheltered accommodation.
Visitor numbers across the libraries has been declining year on year, with the total number of visits. There were 2,028,027 last year, compared to 2,575,240 in 2004/5.
Dorset County Council library service manager Tracy Long ... said the trend reflects the overall national picture and the county’s libraries are continuing to provide a valuable service to a significant number of residents. “On the whole, the number of visitors is declining, use of libraries is declining and there are lot of different reasons for that. “People can buy books and DVDs much cheaper than they used to be able to and the internet is more readily available. We are still very proud of the fact that over two million people use the service every year.”
The library service has faced significant challenges in the recent past. In 2007, 13 of its 34 libraries were faced with the prospect of closure, but the plans were dropped following a review of the service.
One of the ways savings were made was the use of community volunteers to support the existing services and extend opening hours. Volunteers currently run extended sessions in Beaminster, Burton Bradstock and Puddletown and a volunteer scheme is expected to be introduced at Crossways Library in the new year.
Dorset County Council cuts: 500 jobs to go
10:00am Thursday 9 December 2010
AROUND 500 posts are expected to go at Dorset County Council in the next financial year as the authority revealed plans to cut spending by £27million.
The council will have to save between £48-£50million in total over three years. Other new areas identified as facing cuts included a reduction in the number of day centres and the withdrawal of council funding to more than half of the council’s libraries.
Deputy chief executive Elaine Taylor said that the council, which employs 9,761 full time equivalent staff, was currently looking at losing around 500 posts in 2011/12. Council leader Angus Campbell admitted that there was likely to be more redundancies after the next financial year but at this stage the authority did not currently have an estimate as to how many there would be.
Chief financial officer Paul Kent said the exact scale of the cuts the council faced was not yet confirmed, as it was yet to be informed of the grant it would receive from the Government.
Mr Kent said the council was working on a reduction of around 28 per cent in the Government grant.
Scale of Dorset County Council cuts unveiled in report
11:10am Wednesday 8 December 2010
"The report says maintaining a network of 34 libraries “is no longer affordable” and that one proposal is to retain a core council run service while transferring up to half the libraries to communities to run themselves. Stopping spending on some libraries would save £578,300."
Poole Council to shed 10 per cent of workforce
12:09pm Friday 26 November 2010
"The [Poole] council has ... announced plans to restructure its library service. None of its 10 libraries will close or reduce their opening hours but 21 library staff are at risk with 12 likely to lose their jobs."
Last-ditch battle to save Kelly’s Kitchen
2:30pm Wednesday 3rd November 2010
"Dorset County Council ... £2.46m library plans ... to expand the [Christchurch] High Street library. ...
Following the council’s decision to approve the planning application allowing the library expansion into the next-door restaurant, the Kellys applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the planning decision. The review is due to start on January 13 next year [2011].
Jonathon Slater, senior public relations officer at Dorset County Council, said as things stand, the plans to expand the library still remain in the capital programme."
The Cuts Debate: Can voluntary service help save libraries?
11:00am Tuesday 2 November 2010
"Volunteers can currently be found at three of the county council’s [Dorset] libraries, extending their opening hours up to six hours a week. At Beaminster 13 volunteers provide five extra hours, at Burton Bradstock 10 volunteers provide six extra hours and at Puddletown 15 volunteers provide four extra hours."
"Tracy Long, Dorset’s library services manager, said: “Library services has always had a very long history of using volunteers ... Because of the way we use volunteers in Dorset we do attract interest from other library services that are also currently exploring the options as to how they can deliver the service more efficiently."
"At Puddletown, volunteers receive training but are not allowed to use the library computer system. They focus on re-shelving books and finding books to send to headquarters. Mike Chaney, who heads the team of volunteers said ... “We thought originally we would work alongside librarians but instead the library is either open with a professional librarian or with volunteers – they don’t overlap. We are not, in any sense, replacing trained staff.”
The Cuts Debate: Time for a new chapter for libraries?
10:00am Tuesday 2 November 2010
"Dorset County Council has already outlined proposals to save more than £300,000 from its annual libraries budget, which this year is £5.3 million. The money would be saved by reducing the amount spent on books, “reconfiguring” the service which could involve closures or reducing opening hours, and using the library management system more efficiently. Bournemouth council is looking to save £160,000 from this year’s budget of £3.8m while Poole was waiting for more information before reassessing its £2.5m libraries budget.
Libraries are ripe for cuts because the law is vague on what councils must provide – requiring only a “comprehensive and efficient library service”. Dorset, which has 34 static public libraries, four mobile libraries and a home delivery service, Bournemouth, which has 12 libraries and a home library service and Poole, which has 10 static libraries and one mobile library, could all argue they go above and beyond.
Closures would be the easiest option but also be the most controversial, as Dorset County Council found out when it suggested closing 13 libraries. Alternatives include reduced opening hours, lower book budgets and a greater reliance on volunteers to man libraries. Dorset already does this but Bournemouth and Poole only use volunteers to deliver books or assist in specific projects. Councils are not allowed to charge for library membership but may seek income from DVD rentals, internet access and fines.
Longer-term, there is the possibility local library authorities could be merged. Tracy Long, Dorset’s library services manager, warns: “We have three different computer systems so it’s not as easy as saying let’s create one big library authority.”
Dorset cut decisions delayed for review
2:00pm Thursday 14 October 2010
[Dorset] County councillors have deferred making a decision over what projects the authority should scrap or postpone ahead of a major public spending review. ... Committee paperwork listed a number of approved projects that the authority could consider scrapping or deferring, including ... redevelopment work at Christchurch Library"
Kinson mural inspired by Constable’s Hay Wain
9:30am Saturday 2 October 2010
"The 11x7 metre Smugglers Wain has been installed on an outside wall as one of the planning conditions for the new Kinson Hub library building in Wimborne Road. ... Among those present to see the mural were Shelagh Levett, who retired as the service director for information, culture and community learning the day after the Kinson Hub opened in March."
Julian Fellowes speaks up for Dorset's libraries
12:00pm Sunday 12 September 2010
"Chiefs are considering savings of 13 per cent on the [Dorset] authority’s annual £929,000 spend on the book borrowing service as well as a further £295,000 of savings from a reconfiguration of the county’s service. ... but said it was too early to say how the service would be reconfigured. A report on council cuts is due to go to the council’s cabinet in November.
Library services in Dorset face budget cut
8:00am Tuesday 7 September 2010
"Library chiefs have proposed savings of 13 per cent on the county authority’s annual £929,000 spend on the county’s book borrowing service.
Paul Leivers, Dorset County Council’s head of cultural services, said every one of the county’s libraries could be affected by the proposals, contained in the council’s Meeting Future Challenges report. “The library service co-ordinates stock selection and expenditure across all libraries to ensure that the widest possible range and choice of stock within the resources available can be provided. Therefore all libraries in Dorset would be affected by this proposal,” said Mr Leivers.
Library chiefs hope to realise a further £295,000 of savings from a “reconfiguration” of the county’s library service. Mr Leivers said it was too early to say how the service would be reconfigured. “Council officers are currently assessing the best approach for managing future service delivery within a reduced budget, and this work will continue for a number of months.
A report on all the options being considered as part of the council’s Meeting Future Challenges review will be taken to cabinet in November. However, there will need to be public consultation on any options for the library service, and so it is unlikely we will be able to make any final decisions at that stage,” he said.
Dorset County Council last reviewed its library service in 2007 but backed away from proposed closures of 13 libraries, instead reducing core opening hours at branch libraries."
Bournemouth council pays TV's Chris Packham £1,750 to open Kinson Hub
6:08pm Tuesday 17 August 2010
"Carolyn Date, service and strategy manager for libraries and arts, said: “Chris Packham’s appearance was funded through the £1.8million Lottery grant won by Bournemouth Libraries to replace the library at Kinson which is now part of the Kinson Hub. There was a small amount of money in the budget which was approved by the Big Lottery Fund to be spent on publicity and promotion of the new library.
Chris Packham was approached because the new building has excellent green credentials and a very good BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) rating which was of interest to him so he agreed appear and be part of the promotion for a reduced fee. All in all the day was a success attracting much interest and consequently increasing awareness of the new facility.”
Dorset cuts: Initial £40m savings 'underestimated'
10:00am Thursday 22 July 2010
"The [Dorset] council has already produced a report called the Meeting Future Challenges review, which identifies areas for potential savings. These include suggestions such as suspending salary increments across the organisation, reducing overtime expenditure, a review of the library service ..."
Dorset County Council cuts: The savings plan
10:00am Tuesday 13 July 2010 Councillor for Littlemoor, Mark Tewkesbury said, “this will be a big blow for the area, it is the only base where everyone can access the Internet. Apart from holding a large range of books it is also the meeting place for local groups. People come from Preston, Overcombe and Lodmoor to use the facility, it isn’t just Littlemoor that will lose out. In short, it plays vital role within our community, it is the heart of Littlemoor. Friends of Wyke Regis Library in Weymouth are calling for residents to attend a meeting ... Chairman of the friends group, Rosemary Smith, said: “We’re going to try and get a campaign going because what they’re suggesting is just horrific. “They’re talking about withdrawing funding from up to 20 libraries. They’ve talked about consulting people but they haven’t contacted our friends group".
"In order to make savings, Dorset County Council has divided its plans with the help of three themes. These are efficiency savings (the same service at a lower cost), transformational savings (doing things differently, changing strategy) and service reduction (closure of libraries and youth centres, etc). The breakdown of opportunities for savings includes: Eleven areas from Adult and Community Services totalling £7,228,550 including reduction in Public Library Service books and materials and review of service in general, ..."
Dorset County Council cuts: Secret report reveals £30m target
10:00am Tuesday 13 July 2010
"Libraries and youth clubs could close, ... while hundreds of jobs face the axe in some of the most savage Dorset County Council cutbacks for years to save a minimum of £30million.
A confidential document passed to the Dorset Echo outlines the first phase of the work and lists savings opportunities which council chiefs admit will be ‘unpalatable’. Areas under review include ... the library service, ... ."
Kelly's Kitchen says county can't afford Christchurch library extension
7:00pm Monday 14 June 2010
"A planning application was approved last year by Dorset County Council allowing the [Christchurch] library expansion into the next-door restaurant ... £2million scheme
Cllr Hilary Cox, cabinet member for community services at Dorset County Council said: “Christchurch is one of the busiest libraries in Dorset, but is very small and cramped. To improve the service for such a large town, national guidance indicates that it should be much bigger. The library has long needed to be refurbished and expanded, and the money to do this has been included in our capital programme for some time. We remain committed to delivering this extremely important project for the people of Christchurch.”
Balancing books in library service
8:00am Thursday 10 June 2010
LETTER from Carolyn Date, manager, libraries and arts, Bournemouth Borough Council:
"The introduction of self-issue and return in Bournemouth Libraries ... resulted in a reduction of 21 library staff posts (four full time and 17 part time) in the nine libraries operating the system. As the change was planned more than a year ahead, we were able to use staff turnover through retirements and resignations to avoid compulsory redundancies. ...
These changes were introduced in order to make the substantial savings required of the library service budget, which were achieved without any reduction in opening hours.
Library services can never be fully automated, however, because, in addition to the on-line services we offer, which are available 24 hours a day, such as renewals, reservations, ebooks, access to databases etc, library staff carry out many other important tasks which technology cannot provide.
Other recent letters suggest library use may be in decline. This is not our experience as Bournemouth libraries remain the most used library service in the south west and our visits and issues have increased during recent months. This is also the case in other library services."
Judge tells Kelly's Kitchen: you can seek judicial review
11:00am Sunday 16 May 2010
"... Planning decision last year ... by the [Dorset] county council to grant itself permission for the extension of the neighbouring library in August ...
... Campaign against the application to extend the [Christchurch] library into the High Street restaurant ...given the go-ahead by a deputy High Court judge to proceed with the next stage of the judicial review – a hearing in the High Court
A spokesman for Dorset County Council said: “We were naturally disappointed to hear of the judge's decision to allow ... [the] ... appeal to proceed to the High Court. If ... [they] ...do decide to pursue a judicial review, we fully intend to defend the county council’s position. The fact remains that Christchurch badly needs a larger library, and we remain committed to the project.”
Dorset county councillor David Jones said: “As a county councillor I am very concerned that the county council officers do not seem yet to have recognised that we are in deep trouble. In my view the county council should not be spending any money it does not absolutely have to. It makes no sense at all to be wasting our money defending it.”
Kelly Kitchen saga nears its climax
8:00am Monday 10 May 2010
"High Court challenge against Dorset County Council ...The judicial review of the controversial decision by the council to grant itself planning permission for an extension of the [Christchurch] ... library into the popular restaurant was mounted last year following the decision in August. [The] challenge is based on three grounds which include the council not considering alternative schemes, despite being instructed to by its own planning committee, as well as not considering whether the scheme was actually needed with the final reason being that the decision was unreasonable.
A previous decision by the council was quashed by the High Court on appeal in 2008 because it did not comply with town and county planning regulations.
The council says the £2.46million library expansion is desperately needed with national guidance indicating the library should be three times its current size."
