Agenda item

A copy of the report to be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 16 June is attached for the Committee’s consideration. Any comments made on the report will be reported at that meeting.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Adults and Communities, the purpose of which was to provide an update on the progress made with communities who have been assessed as meeting the County Council’s conditions to enable them to manage their community library, and those where no Registration of Interest (ROI) has been received, or a registration of interest or outline business plan had been submitted and subsequently withdrawn. A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 10’ is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Mr Blunt, Lead Member for Heritage, Leisure and Arts, Mr Jon Wilson, the Director of Adults and Communities and Mr Nigel Thomas the Head of Service, Communities and Wellbeing to introduce the report and answer questions.

In response to questions members were advised as follows:-

(i)            There was some slippage on the required MTFS savings as a result of the process of transferring libraries taking longer than had been anticipated. A non-recurring contingency of £330,000 had been set aside to accommodate this slippage. The Cabinet Lead Member stated that he had advised the Leader and the Cabinet colleagues of the slippage. He added that the fact that the Cabinet had noted and accepted the delay in the savings requirement showed the commitment of the Administration to ensure, as far as possible, that all communities were able to work with the Council and take over the management of the local libraries.

(ii)          The issue of developer contributions (Section 106 monies) was the subject of a briefing note to local communities. The County Council’s request for developer contribution would be based on the new service delivery model and any funds received would need to be used for the library affected by the development. To that end the Locality Support Officer would work with the library concerned to discuss the impact of the development and how this could best be addressed. Part of this discussion could include the addition of stock or funding for other plans that would meet the needs of the community using the library.

(iii)         The County Council was proposing a further round of engagement with those communities that had not put forward a bid or had put forward a bid which was deemed unacceptable or had been withdrawn. It was hoped that the work currently being undertaken by Voluntary Action Leicester in building community capacity plus the experience of groups in other localities who had put forward successful bids would serve to encourage people/groups to come forward. Regarding the issue of deprivation as a factor preventing people coming forward the experience across the County and elsewhere would suggest this was not necessarily the case.

(iv)         It was difficult to predict and generalise about the long term sustainability of communities operating library services. An analysis of the bids submitted to operate libraries had shown that communities were aware of the challenges ahead and their business plans were robust. The Cabinet Lead Member indicated that he was confident that the majority of the libraries would be sustainable in the long term but that it was likely their role would change over time and they became more of a community resource with a range of activities taking place in the library buildings.

(v)          Alternative services for areas where an acceptable outline business plan had not been submitted had yet to be explored. Amongst the options under consideration would be closure with replacement by a mobile service, a smaller more targeted service etc. it was hoped as a result of the next round of engagement this would not be the case. At the point where alternatives needed to be developed, the Council would need to ensure it had undertaken a robust EHRIA to understand the impact of a change on protected groups and any mitigating action that might be taken. In this regard the Cabinet Lead Member urged elected members and parish councils to provide leadership to their local communities so that a successful transfer of the library service could be achieved.

Members welcomed the report, the good progress that had been made and commended officers for the work they had undertaken with local communities in developing their outline business plans. Members welcomed the further round of engagement with those communities that had not submitted a business plan but were keen ensure that these communities did not receive preferential treatment.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the progress made to date on working with communities to manage their local libraries be noted;

(b)  That the Cabinet be advised of the comments now made and that the committee supports the recommendations set out in the report.