Nottingham City Council is not guaranteeing the future of three libraries it pledged to keep open at the start of the year due to a "challenging" financial climate. One of those who campaigned to keep the Radford-Lenton, Basford and Aspley libraries open says there should not be a repeat of last year's "trauma", when all three were earmarked for permanent closure.
The proposals were first made at the start of 2022 as Nottingham City Council said savings of £233,000 were needed. The authority then announced at the start of this year that a "restructure of frontline services" meant less savings were needed.
It therefore kept all three libraries open, though with reduced opening hours. But the 'Save Nottingham Libraries' campaign group recently sent a letter to Nottingham City Council asking for the authority to commit again to keeping the three centres open.
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Fears were sparked by an announcement after recent local elections that the council was reviewing its strategic council plan. One of the campaigners now says he is "unhappy" with what the council have said in response to the recent open letter.
In a statement, Councillor Pavlos Kotsonis, the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture at Nottingham City Council, said it would be a "positive year" for libraries. The new Central Library and a new Sherwood Library are due to be open by the end of the year.
But in regards to the letter from campaigners, Councillor Kotsonis said: "The strategic council plan is currently being reworked following the local elections last month but we have made a commitment as councillors to maintain a high-quality library service with Central open and accessible to all, with excellent provision for children.
"However, the financial climate remains challenging for all councils and unfortunately savings have to be found across every department – mine included. What I can say with certainty, though, is that I will do everything I can to protect the service."
Des Conway, part of the 'Save Nottingham Libraries' group, said: "Labour had a very good election result in May and so they should be a bit more buoyant and proactive in supporting services like community centres and libraries, that's where we're coming from. I also think they should seriously look at the idea of ring-fencing funding for libraries, because we don't want the trauma of last year to be repeated and for our communities to go through that again."
The idea of ring-fencing funding for libraries was recently raised by the former children's laureate Malorie Blackman. Mr Conway also feels that the continued oversight of the Government's Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB), chaired by Sir Tony Redmond, is a factor in the council being unable to guarantee the future of the libraries.
He said: "We're very supportive of Pavlos generally but we thought his response was a bit glib and it didn't address the giant mammoth in the room which is Sir Tony Redmond, who is watching every twitch at Nottingham City Council. Unless they are free from that straitjacket that has been clamped on them, they don't seem to want to manoeuvre."
Clarity on the future of the strategic council plan will come when the refreshed version is drawn up. It is due to be formally adopted by a full council meeting in September but it will have to be discussed by the Executive Board first, with the next meeting of that group due on July 18.
Councillor Kotsonis added: "We'll be exploring ways to shield the council... as much as we can by considering commercial use of spaces where possible, introduction of new technology, economies of scale and shared-spaces opportunities across all our community assets, plus partnership working with other local authorities."
