Reassurance that Library service review ‘not just a cost cutting exercise’ as details of town library refurb published

Reassurances that a review into Wrexham’s libraries is not just a cost cutting exercise have been made – however it’s likely there will be a different way of providing the service in the future.

It comes as as a result of Wrexham Council undertaking a review into the local library service as part of its ‘Difficult Decisions’ budget process.

Wrexham Council operates 11 libraries across the county borough – including the mobile library – at a cost of over £1 million a year.

However it is estimated that by considering “options for community run libraries and lone working options for branch libraries and identify where further costs can be reduced for non front line services”, could save the council £130,000.

The review has prompted fears that cuts and potentially closures will be made to local library services, that we noted usually means cost savings.

Speaking this week Ian Bancroft, chief executive of Wrexham Council, said the review “isn’t just a cost cutting exercise” but also about providing a “modern library service” for the public.

Mr Bancroft continued: “One of the real dangers that happens with library services is that you maintain too many buildings and you have very short opening hours, so you can’t invest in the stock, the program and you can’t invest in the IT.

“It means actually you’re running the service down while keeping a large number of buildings open for a short period of time. So somewhere there’s that balance.”

After giving examples in Rhos where single buildings could be used to provide multiple services such as estates management and a library,  the Leader of the council, Mark Pritchard, added: “We don’t know the outcome as we have not made any prejudgment.

“We haven’t even really got into the political discussion, we are letting the officers do the review. They’ll come back to us and see what they think is best for the service.

“It might be a reduction, might be that we keep them all, might be change of opening times and might be that we have a larger library. I don’t know. What we will do, like we always do, is let the officers go away and come back to us and find a way forward.”

Cllr Pritchard continued: “You might have a new 21st century state of the art library you might end up with in Glyndwr, the people that use it are not really bothered where it or who operates it. It’s just that the facilities there.”

Speaking about the future review and possible duplication of services Mr Bancroft added: “There are examples where we have libraries are very close to schools, the school is running a school library and we’re running a library.

“I think the importance is in any type of these reviews we have that debate with the community and those stakeholders to say how do we make sure we sustain these facilities in a way that’s affordable for the long term. And actually if there’s duplication of provision amongst community facilities how do we get that right, because it’s costing everybody to have those in separate places.

“There will need to be quite an open debate with communities that how we get that picture right.”

It was also revealed that there are plans to modernise the library in the town centre, with a procurement notice for ‘Refurbishment of Wrexham Library’ posted on sell2wales here.

The advert gives an overview of the planned work, noting: “We are looking for the successful tenderer to refurbish the foyer of Wrexham Library with the ultimate aim of increasing library usage in the community. The foyer is an empty space with a café and toilet area to one side. We would like to integrate the foyer into the library function making it a welcoming space that will appeal to non-traditional library users, while still providing for the needs and expectations of the existing library customers. The vision for this space is to enable library customers to be self-sufficient to issue / return library items and access Wrexham County Borough Council Wi-Fi with little or limited staff involvement.”

When asked if the procurement notice was part of the planned review, Mr Bancroft noted that it was a ‘planned piece of work’ which involved modernising the library.

He added: “Clearly the town centre library is always going to be an important library. I think it’s fair to say in terms of self service that is a general direction of travel within the library services in the UK.

“Following on from obviously banks and supermarkets there’ll be some people who will prefer to not have to go to the counter and serve themselves. There’ll be others who want to go to the counter and it’s making sure that we provide that that range of opportunity.

“Research shows that generally you either need libraries co-located or you need them in the busiest place with a heavy footfall on high streets because otherwise they don’t just get the footfall in terms of people coming to that library.

“I think that’s really really important for the future, co-located community based services is really really important. Or having a town centre library that is absolutely at the heart of the town, means you maximise footfall libraries play a really important role from a mental health perspective from a dementia perspective.

“It’s making sure that really when we think about what the service is delivering it’s really delivering against some of those important outcomes for us.”