By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
The opening times of Nottingham’s libraries will be reduced by more than 40 hours in total as part of revised plans to save three from closure.
Nottingham City Council has put forward newly recommended proposals to save the Radford-Lenton Library, Aspley Library and Basford Library following opposition from campaign group Save Nottingham Libraries.
The group helped drive the change as the Labour-run council planned to close the three libraries as part of budget proposals to save it £79,000 a year.
A staffing restructure had already knocked £154,000 off the total it needed to save.
However plans to reduce opening hours, in place of the closures, have been put forward instead to save the remaining £79,000.
The new proposals have been recommended for approval at an Executive Board meeting on January 17.
Under the new plans Aspley Library will remain open to the public, but with a redesign so it can also be used as a stock distribution hub and the central point for the development and delivery of outreach services.
The council says this will allow for efficient use of the space, services and resources including savings from reduced staffing level as a result bringing together multiple library services into one building, while also retaining access for people in Aspley, which is one of the most deprived wards in the city.
There are costs associated with the redesign of the building estimated at £50,000, and this will be met through the Central Library transformation project budget.
While campaigners claimed victory, concerns have since been raised over the changes to opening hours, which amount to a reduction by some 42.5 hours in total.
The Meadows Library will undergo the most significant cuts to its opening hours.
Des Conway, of the Save Nottingham Libraries group, said: “We regret that the council has decided to save the remaining £79,000 budget saving by reducing overall opening hours across the portfolio, but fortunately not affecting Basford and Radford-Lenton Libraries which retain their existing opening hour arrangements.
“However, the campaign is obviously disappointed in the overall reduction in service opening hours across the entire library network and we would ask the council to consider, even at this late stage keeping the £79k in the library budget, to maintain existing opening hours.
“Instead we call on the council to utilise part of the £10m Prosperity Fund, recently allocated to councils, which we understand can be used for funding mainstream services.”
The changes, if revised plans are approved, will be as follows:
Aspley Library (Four hour reduction):
Thursdays – Usually 9am until 1pm, will close.
Basford Library (N/A):
Mondays – 9am until 1pm to change to 2pm until 6pm to reflect usage.
Totstime will run 10:30am until 11am, Games Café 10 am until 12noon.
Bilborough Library (N/A):
No change.
Clifton Library (Four hour reduction):
Wednesdays – Usually 9am until 1pm, will close.
Coffee Morning First Wed 10am until 12noon
Dales Centre (One hour reduction):
Wednesdays – 9am until 7pm will change to 9am until 6pm.
Meadows Library (Eight hour reduction):
Thursdays – 9am until 6pm will change to 9am until 1pm.
Saturdays – 9am until 4pm will change to 9am until 1pm.
Radford-Lenton (N/A):
Mondays – 9am until 1pm will change to 2pm until 6pm.
Work club 10am until 12 noon.
Sherwood Library (Three hour reduction):
Saturdays – 9am until 4pm will change to 9am until 1pm.
Southglade Park Library (N/A):
No change
Strelley Road Library (N/A):
No change
Wollaton Library (Two hour reduction):
Tuesdays – 9am until 7pm will change to 9am until 6pm.
Thursdays – 9am until 7pm will change to 9am until 6pm.
Nottingham Central (Five and a half hours reduction):
Monday to Friday – 8.30am until 7pm will change to 9am until 6pm.
Saturday – 9am until 4pm will change to 9am until 6pm.
Bulwell Riverside Library (Reduction by five hours):
Monday to Friday – 8.30am until 6.30pm will change to 9am until 6pm.
Hyson Green (Reduction by five hours):
As above.
St Ann’s Valley Library (Reduction by five hours):
As above.
In the proposal documents the council adds: “Joint-services community library opening hours are currently open 8.30-6.30 to support the ‘Ask Here’ reception functions for the JSCs however, demand is very low before 9am and after 6pm and it is therefore put forward that the hours can be adjusted with minimal impact on the support for the wider JSC services, including GP surgeries and to JSC users.
“Evening use of libraries is low. Wollaton and Dales libraries are the only libraries currently opening 6pm-7pm. There is low anticipated impact on customers resulting from these hours no longer being offered.
“A number of library half days have been changed to closed days to reflect
use.
“Where libraries are open half days, changing morning opening to afternoon
opening is designed to give customers more choice the week to access their
local library
“A reduction in Meadows Library’s opening hours is proposed because the current opening hours are disproportionate to the use of the library relative to the wider library network.”
