News / Politics
Library cuts ‘tip of iceberg’, warns mayor
Cuts to Bristol’s library services are “just the tip of the iceberg”, according to mayor George Ferguson who is warning of further belt-tightening.
Planned closures were all but shelved after a review which found ways to keep services running on limited hours instead.
But city mayor Ferguson warned more is to come in the face of an estimated 12 per cent cut to council budgets from central Government.
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“It’s not finished yet,” he told Bristol24/7. “We are faced with a huge challenge still. There is more to come and there is more to come in the form of cuts.
“We are just not going to be able to deliver everything people want us to deliver with less resources. In a way the library issue is just the tip of the iceberg.”
A final decision on the city’s libraries, of which Eastville still remains under threat from closure or ‘relocation’, will be taken by Ferguson at a cabinet meeting on August 4.
The Local Government Association (LGA) warned in the wake of the General Election result that there would be an estimated £3.3 billion cut to local councils in 2016/17.
The LGA’s annual Future Funding Outlook report said pressure will now be on budgets for vital services like bin collections, buses and libraries.
Ferguson told Bristol24/7 that Bristol City Council is being left with very few options, with current funding only just covering what it has a statutory obligation to deliver.
“With the libraries I was very impressed with what came out of the consultation, but we still have to find savings,” he said.
“If not here, then we have to find savings from elsewhere.”
He called on the council to become more “entrepreneurial” in finding new ways to fund itself and its services, using the example of new digital advertising hoardings, the sale of the port and the establishment of a new council-owned energy company.