What does the future hold for Bristol’s libraries?

Aside from raising taxes, there are few policies more likely to incite anger than threatening to close public libraries. And so it proved in June 2017, when Bristol City Council said they would have to close 17 of the city’s 27 libraries in a bid to plug an estimated £108m budget gap by 2023.

“There was a storm of protests,” recalls a member of community group Bristol Libraries Forum, who was closely involved in the campaign against the closures, with more than 16,000 signing a number of petitions.

Such was the ferocity of the response that greeted the announcement of the library closures that the council halted their plans in November 2017. In June last year, following a consultation, they performed a dramatic U-turn: all libraries would remain open until the mayoral elections of May 2020. Bristol’s public libraries had been granted a stay of execution.

But what about their long-term future? Is the current provision, with most communities having at least one library close to hand, truly sustainable? Now that the dust has settled on the furious debates over the past couple of years, there is a chance to work out what the present – and the future – of Bristol libraries is.

Public libraries are far more than the sum of their parts. “They provide social value to the city,” as the Bristol Libraries Forum spokesperson put it. “They should be considered as part of lifelong education, health, wellbeing, employment, social care, communities and much more.”

Bristol deputy mayor for communities, Asher Craig, who faced much of the criticism for the proposal to shut down over half of Bristol’s libraries, agreed. “It’s not about the buildings. It’s about the community saying what it needs, saying this is what is missing,” she told Bristol24/7.

All of Bristol’s libraries – including St George Library in deputy mayor Asher Craig’s ward – have a stay of execution until after the mayoral election in May 2020 

In Bristol, as well as books and banks of computer terminals, libraries host front-line support services. This is done informally: through the many community organisations that meet in them, from post-natal groups to book clubs. But also officially: they are used by a range of adult social care services, from computer literacy classes for vulnerable people to refugee rights action groups.

Without the space of a nearby public library, it is unclear where many of these volunteer-led services could go. As Jo Richardson, a founding member of the campaign group Love Bristol Libraries, notes: “Libraries are one of the cheapest council services to run, and statistics show that for every one pound invested, they give back four to the local community.”

“The best that anyone can say about Bristol library services is that they have been undergoing a managed decline over the last decade,” a library campaigner who wished to remain anonymous told Bristol24/7. “Opening hours, the number of staff and the spending and items of stock have all been reduced.

“The council claim there are too many library buildings because some branch libraries have only a few users over the day. In fact, what has led to lower usage has been the reduction of opening hours, and fewer staff and stock. The council refuse to guarantee or increase any of these.”

The campaigner added: “To all points and purposes, the library service has been reduced to a state where only a few users trickle into libraries such as Avonmouth. The library is only open four hours a day and for five days a week, never past 5pm or before 10am.

“This gives the council the excuse that not many people use the libraries and that users want change. However, a Freedom of Information request to the council has failed to turn up any recorded evidence of residents wanting change, even after two consultations, and a report conducted at a cost of £40,000.”

Wednesday opening hours at Bristol Central Library were recently reinstated following a public consultation

Research by the Reading Agency has found that being a regular library user is associated with a 1.4 per cent increase in general good health. The aggregate annual savings for the NHS across the library using population is £27.5 m.

And they appear to be good at reaching key demographics: 72 per cent of children between 11 and 15, the crucial school years, visited a library at least once in the last year; and black and minority groups (BAME) had higher rates of attendance than other adults from the non-minority groups (45 per cent compared to 32 per cent). Many worry that were libraries to disappear, so would the ability to easily reach these critical groups.

Some in City Hall claim that Bristol’s libraries are costly to the public purse, but their overall cost of £4.5m is just 1.2 per cent of the revenue budget. The library budget has also been cut by £3m in the last seven years, from £7.6m in 2012/13 to £4.7m in 2019/20.

“We had major financial challenges in the local authority – something had to give,” says Craig. “With some of our libraries, in some areas of the city, you can’t really justify keeping them open based on the numbers of people using them. One of the issues in our city is we have too many assets, too many buildings in our public sector.”

Patchy usage, however, is only half the problem. Bristol’s libraries are scattered. They are located more by accidents of geography, the tidemarks of the city’s sprawling expansion, than products of any over-arching design. This means that while some – like Bishopston, Redland and Central Library close to College Green – are well situated on busy highstreets with plenty of footfall, others are isolated and poorly used; marooned by the shifting layout of the city.

“Not all Bristol libraries are in the right place as communities have evolved and changed,” Jo observes. “There is scope for change.”

But what change? Craig is adamant that the council’s plans for libraries be seen as an opportunity for reinvention, not as a knee-jerk reaction to a budget shortfall. “It’s not just about the council, it’s the city’s vision,” she says. “We have tremendous intellectual capital in Bristol. We need to put it to use.”

Craig is clear that it is the council’s responsibility to run the library service. But she wants to encourage community groups to take greater ownership of their local facilities. She points to Junction 3 in Easton – which was built in 2013 as part of an estate of 59 affordable houses – as an example of what can be achieved.

Such a service, adds the St George councillor, must be fit for the 21st century: “Books need to be protected. But I want a space that is adaptable, that puts digital inclusion at the heart of what it does. I want a community-accessible venue.”

Activist groups are concerned that such rhetoric is a merely a disguise for back-handed closures. By encouraging communities to take responsibility, the buck is passed. The council might abdicate its duty to preserve libraries, and then slowly allow provision to wither and perish as concerned locals try – and fail – to keep them open.

“Bristol seems to be heading down a well-worn path of handing over libraries to community trusts and volunteers,” Jo sighs.

One way these fears might be allayed is for the council to lay down ‘red lines’ for provision which they will not cross, says Paula O’Rourke, Green Party councillor for Clifton, who was involved in the original campaign to fight against the closures.

“I am concerned that there is no real baseline of what the service means,” O’Rourke told Bristol24/7. “The city has a statutory obligation to provide a library service but there is no definition of what that must be. It could be just one library… There needs to be a root and branch review which would then lead to a new libraries strategy.”

O’Rourke argues that Bristol City Council should demonstrate the same ambition and vision it is encouraging from community groups: “Presently, budgets are in siloes but with creative use and good control of these budgets, an enhanced service could be offered. Libraries will not stand alone. They will continue to need support from the public purse.”

In the hope of finding a way through this impasse of conflicting interests, the city council is hosting a series of conversations in community libraries between January and April. As a result of these talks, it will then unveil a five-year plan for libraries in April or May.

To find out about these consultations and have your say online, visit www.bristol.gov.uk/libraryideas