Agenda item

9.05

Members of the public or individuals representing groups can request to present a petition to or speak on the libraries at this meeting if they give advance notice by 9.00 am on Friday 9 December. However as there is likely to be a great deal of interest it would be helpful if any requests were received by the end of Wednesday 7 December. Requests can be made to the Committee/Contact Officer named on the front of the agenda or through the web site:

http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/get-involved-meetings

Before the meeting, any requests received will be considered by the Chairman of the meeting. If your request is agreed, you will be allowed to speak for no more than five minutes (three minutes for a petition). This time limit may have to be reduced or you may be asked to group with others making similar points dependent on the number of people wanting to speak. Speakers are expected to keep to the subject, avoid using offensive or abusive language, and to keep to time.

The following speakers addressed the committee, as agreed by the chairman:

• Dr Judith Wardle (Save Oxfordshire Libraries)
• Trevor Craig
• Julia Drown (Old Marston)
• Paddy Landau (Save Kennington Library)
• Philip Pinney (Friends of Watlington Library)
• Christopher Quinton (Woodcote)

Local Members:

• Cllr Neil Owen (Charlbury)
• Cllr Ian Hudspeth (Woodstock)

Dr Lawrence Reavill (Goring Parish Council) has asked to speak but was unable to be present. Ian Hill (Watlington Parish Council) had asked to speak but then agreed that Mr Pinney would also speak on his behalf.

Key issues referred to in the discussion included:

Dependence on volunteers

• Fear there could be a lack of volunteers to be found
• Volunteers’ skills, need for extensive training
• Lone working concerns
• Friends of libraries groups already stretched
• Core libraries not being asked to use volunteers for core services

Consultation

• Criteria based on need, current usage not taken into account
• Rural bias in the methodology used to assess the requirements of the library service
• Smaller libraries affected disproportionately
• Cuts should be evenly distributed across all libraries
• Not sufficient account taken of proposed housing growth

Costs and funding

• Benchmarking of service costs against other authorities
• Savings difficult to deliver

Dr Wardle noted that Save Oxfordshire Libraries was not a political group. They were concerned that the quantitative analysis had favoured urban libraries. 16 friends of libraries groups had said that the proposals would not work and four groups that they could cover 1/3 of hours with volunteers; more would not be sustainable.

Mr Craig contended that the figures did not stack up with a shortfall in proposed savings. He questioned the proportion of funding going to back office functions, making comparisons with other authorities, and suggesting that savings could be achieved by looking further at management and professional support services rather than recruiting volunteers.

Ms Drown was concerned about difficulties of relying on volunteers with a varied range of skills, the need to train them and concerns about how the council would fulfil its duty of care towards volunteers. In her view the proposals were impractical and projected savings exaggerated.

Mr Landau noted that while the Friends of Kennington Library were in strong position, already raising funds for a library with low overheads in shared premises; they would struggle with a 50% cut as existing volunteers were already stretched. He asked that a “one size fits all” approach to implementing the proposals should be avoided.

Mr Pinney explained that Friends of Watlington Library hade been set up 12 years ago to save it from closure. It had raised funds to have the building restored, extended and self-service introduced from October last year. He referred to the strength of local feeling and concerns about proposed reductions in staff.

Speaking on behalf of Mr Hill, Mr Pinney welcomed changes from previous proposals but expressed concerns about the impact of savings on rural communities. He thought the parameters used were biased against rural areas and proposals did not address the spread of rural populations or the role of larger rural settlements as hubs.

Mr Quinton expressed concerns about the potential impact of the proposed changes on the agreement with Langtree school where Woodcote Library is based. He also questioned how much working with volunteers would cost, suggesting there could be no or insignificant savings from the proposals.

Councillor Owen welcomed the modifications to proposals but was also concerned about the impact on rural communities and about contingency plans if insufficient numbers of volunteers came forward.

Councillor Hudspeth also expressed concerns about the methodology, in particular in defining the catchment area for libraries and its impact on rural communities like Woodstock, and pointed out the infrequency of public transport to places other than central Oxford. He felt that developing a 21^st century library service required a “can do” approach, such as looking more closely into working with others such as the universities.