Changes to Library Services Phase 2

About this review

South Gloucestershire Libraries provide a statutory service to everyone in South Gloucestershire and this is currently delivered through a network of 13 branch libraries and one mobile library.

The council savings programme is our response to national austerity measures and the sharp fall in the amount of grant funding received from central government. The Council has already saved £56million mainly through efficiency measures but we are now planning to save a further £22million by 2019-20. All areas of the council have been given outline savings targets on this journey towards 2020.

Our library service has been identified as an area which could potentially contribute towards these savings. To understand how this might be achieved we ran a first phase of consultation over spring and summer 2016. This consultation looked at potential delivery options for the library service in the future.

The Environment and Community Services Committee considered the results of this first phase of consultation and has selected a preferred option for the future of the library service. This preferred option is now the subject of a further round of consultation and we would very much like to hear your views and comments on the revised proposals.

Find out more by reading our consultation document and FAQs, and please give your views by taking part in our survey.

Options under consideration

The key points of the new preferred option are:

• The savings target would be reduced from £650,000 to £500,000 (within a budget of £2.6million), enabling staffed opening hours to be reduced by a smaller amount than proposed in consultation phase 1
• The service would introduce an ‘open access’ technology to enable libraries to open without staff, extending opening times by nearly 100% on current hours (through a one off investment in the equipment required)
• The mobile library service would be replaced with community centre based libraries across South Gloucestershire and run by volunteer groups
• South Gloucestershire Council would fund the costs of running the Chipping Sodbury Library building with the service being delivered by volunteers
• The book fund would be reduced by £81,000

The second round of consultation seeks views on these proposals, along with any suggestions for alternative options, from interested stakeholders. More information can be found in the consultation document and frequently asked questions document.

This consultation has now closed and our consultation report is now available.