Opposition to cuts in libraries' opening hours
COUNCILLORS are opposing cuts to library opening hours.
Mayor Gordon Oliver is proposing to cut £170,000 from the libraries' budget which would reduce opening hours.
Labour chairman Cllr Darren Cowell is calling for £63,000 to be returned to that budget.
After meeting the Friends of Torquay and Paignton libraries, Cllr Cowell said: "Libraries are not just about books anymore. There are a wide range of services on offer and it's nothing short of a scandal to cut the opening hours. Paignton is a new £6million facility and we are talking about closing it on an afternoon.
"I am urging the reinstatement of this money to enable the review currently being undertaken to report and to allow the library service, friends groups and other bodies to look at new ways of working. Torbay has one of the worst provisions for library hours in the country, this cut will make it even worse."
The call has the support of the independent councillors. The Lib-Dems want to reinstate £85,000.
3 Comments
by nicold
Monday, February 13 2012, 7:14PM
“Cut the newspapers? Not even a miniscule dent in the required £170,000. Close them on a Tuesday may help and turn off the heat in the Winter to keep the unemployed and smelly pensioners out!”
by Baby_boomer
Monday, February 13 2012, 5:52PM
“Perhaps one way of saving money would be for local libraries to stop buying daily newspapers? I can understand the need for the weekly Horrid Excuse to be purchased - but only for archive/historical purposes, by which I mean it should only be available upon request from a librarian and only after, say, a fortnight has passed from the publication date.
After all, as this site shows, The Western Moaning Farmers for example is freely available on-line, so why should the local authority be spending public money on daily newsprint (freely accessible on-line at libraries anyway) that the tight-wads don't want to spend themselves?
All too often the papers purchased come in numerous sections which are then inevitably split up and which become strewn all over the library making a hell of a mess.”
by TorquayToby
Sunday, February 12 2012, 12:05PM
“Many were bowled over at the decision to build the Paignton facility and at such cost; none of it made sense. So, in this period of cost-control what better way is there to save money other than denying one the ability to browse local artists' work on a slow afternoon?”