Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Anthony Gearing (Councillor Sandy Lovatt as substitute) and Councillor Carol Viney (Councillor Steve Hayward as substitute).

Cllr Heathcoat noted that as Cabinet Member whose portfolio includes library services she had not participated in discussions on Faringdon library.

John Jackson also expressed a personal interest in Faringdon library as a user of that library.

As noted at the previous meeting on 7 November, the Minutes of that meeting will be carried forward to the committee’s next regular meeting in February for approval. This is to facilitate discussion of the single agenda item scheduled for the present meeting.

The Chairman reminded the committee that the minutes of the last meeting would be considered at its next regular meeting in February, as agreed.

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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 170/11

10.45

To discuss the revised proposals for the future of the library service, in order to advise Cabinet. The Director for Social & Community Services, John Jackson, will give a brief presentation on the Cabinet report (attached).

The committee discussed the changes proposed to Cabinet for the Library Service at some length. The Director for Social & Community Services, John Jackson, gave a comprehensive presentation on the Cabinet report. He explained how proposals had changed, taking into account:

• Public reaction to initial proposals a year ago and responses to the consultation over the summer
• Additional resources available as reflected in February’s council budget
• Library service legislation now tested in court

The council had now defined that its ‘comprehensive and efficient network’ of library provision was made up of 22 core libraries. No alternative definition had been put forward, except the suggestion to base it on usage figures rather than need.

John Jackson noted that the Wirral case suggested a comprehensive and efficient network should be based on need not current usage; a wide range of factors influenced usage figures of any given library. The case also showed that clear robust criteria should apply across all libraries without exception. In terms of the concerns expressed about the council’s data analysis, he referred to the full response made available on the website and included as Annex 6 of the Cabinet report.

He offered a detailed overview of the costs of the library service, concluding that genuine back office functions made up less than 10% of the overall cost of the service - a comparable figure to other authorities.

In response to suggestions that reductions should be shared across the whole service, officers had advised that the core network should be resourced properly. The introduction of self-service had also brought savings in these 22 libraries.

However, the council wished to see the other 21 libraries remain open as valued community assets. It proposed to continue funding these, 81% of the costs of community and community plus libraries, and ensure they had full access to the library system. The proposals included an increase in the proportion of paid staff to volunteers, at an additional cost of £67,000. It was noted that it was up to town and parish councils to decide if they wanted to provide additional funding through their precept.

Karen Warren gave further details on how the council was, and proposes to, train and support library volunteers. She noted that there already were 140 active volunteers and 24 in process of being trained. Training would be mostly in-house and where this was not possible, e.g. with First Aid and Fire, it would be held as locally as possible. Support could be tailored for individual libraries and guidance would be light-touch. There would be clear support and a communication tree for any cases of lone working, where this could not be avoided. Officers were confident that volunteering in a library would be an attractive option and the service would be able to attract and retain sufficient volunteers. 461 potential volunteers had come forward in the consultation.

During the subsequent debate, members raised further questions and sought clarity and reassurance in a number of areas. These included support for volunteers, cost of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 171/11