‘Libraries have been used as a political football over the past few years’

On Tuesday, the mayor announced a u-turn on the proposal to save £1.4m from the Bristol libraries budget. He made a welcome pledge to continue funding the service until 2020.

For communities who faced losing their local library service, this will be good news. 17 of the city’s 27 libraries were set to close and  ‘friends’ and campaign groups have been formed to fight for them.

Many have been working together to advocate for a well-run service managed by paid, experienced staff.

But is this the good news the mayor wants us to believe it is?

Lets consider what we’ve actually got. And what the implications of the announcement might be.

Library staff on strike in 2016

First, lets acknowledge the decision made by former mayor George Ferguson to reduce the number of opening hours across branches, rather than close seven libraries. It left staff working patchwork hours over multiple locations. In April 2016, library staff went on strike to protest against conditions that saw them working fewer hours over more days.

Does the announcement this week mean that there is no resolution to this way of working for staff?

Perhaps it’s an unpopular opinion. But not all libraries are worth saving. Bristol has a generous number of libraries. There is nothing to be gained by keeping every single library open. Consider the libraries in the wrong location, the libraries that only have three people a day walk through the doors.

Could we provide a better quality service with fewer libraries in the right places? We’d argue that we need to reconsider which libraries to keep. But I think we’d all agree that Bristol deserves more than 10 libraries.

Part-time opening hours leave many without a library service several days a week. Our Central Library is still closed on Wednesdays. A brand new library opened on Gloucester Road, but it is staffed for less than 30 hours a week. Evening opening hours are reduced.

Though the library took steps to reduce the impact of fewer opening hours by removing charges to reserve books, there will be an impact on library footfall.

Marvin Rees announced all of Bristol’s libraries will remain open until at least 2020

Tuesday’s announcement offers no detail about investing in buildings, services or staff. And this final paragraph from Marvin’s blog today suggests that communities have a big part to play in the future of the service:

He said: “I hope local groups can take this opportunity to step forward and work with us to trial new ways of delivering library services. With time, libraries have already adapted: beyond free books and information, libraries are increasingly relied upon as social spaces and sources of digital facilities.

“By working to keep the libraries open, we will have more time to explore community-led options and ensure we consider potential changes carefully and in line with the pace of community support and action. Now is the time for everyone to come forward and make sure we continue to build a library service we can all be proud of.”

It’s clear the mayor and deputy mayor are still asking communities to run their own library.

This isn’t a u-turn. It’s spin. Throughout this campaign, deputy mayor Asher Craig has spoken about community groups that have already come forward to take responsibility for their local library. The consultation specifically asked for volunteers and welcomed suggestions of ‘solutions’ to remove tricky decisions to close libraries from council hands. There is no transparency over which libraries may be led by communities, or which communities have already come forward.

The implication for the number of library staff is still unclear. Previously, we’ve heard that up to 40 library staff were at risk. The mayor announced with much fan-fare that he was ‘saving libraries’. Has he saved the staff?

The service has been through constant change and flux over the past few years, with little opportunity for the library to set a strategic direction. Instead, they’ve had to respond to budget cuts and proposed service changes.

The recent options appraisal report by the Mutual Ventures made for difficult reading as it highlighted poor senior management.

People packed into a public meeting in Redland Library to voice their dismay at the proposed cuts

Libraries have been used as a political football over the past few years, with little opportunity for development, only reaction to proposals and funding cuts.

They need to be given the opportunity to create an aspirational plan for the service beyond the next mayoral election. As it is, the decision to fund libraries until 2020 means that libraries will be a key election issue in the next mayoral campaign.

More details will be coming out shortly, and we look forward to finding out what the plans for Bristol Libraries look like. I hope it’s more than ‘if you want a library, run it yourself’.

Jo Richardson founded Love Bristol Libraries, a group of volunteers from across Bristol who have come together to try to fight the council’s plans to cut library services.

Read more: All of Bristol’s libraries saved