No new book orders for Wrexham’s libraries as council makes further cuts

UPDATE: This afternoon the Library service have also published some extra context, “You may be aware of recent reported cuts to the library services book fund, we want to reassure our customers that some new resources will still be available in our libraries throughout Wrexham County Borough as an existing programme of purchasing was already in place, and we have access to the wider resources across the North Wales libraries consortium. We will still receive hundreds of new books each month, which will include copies of all of the top ten bestsellers in English Fiction and Non-Fiction, children’s books, audio books, large print books and Welsh language books. We will also continue to buy and provide online e-books and e-audio books through our Borrowbox app. You may see a change in how many copies of the same title we buy and we may not always be able to obtain your specialist requested items, but we will do our best to help you with all of your reading needs.”

Original article below….

No new books will be ordered for Wrexham’s libraries until the next financial year as part of ongoing budget cuts.

Despite almost £9 million in ‘efficiencies’ already being found by Wrexham Council in the last month, a £15 million gap remains before the budget can be brought back in line.

Locally there have been rumours that the cuts have impacted the supply of new books for Wrexham’s libraries, which was first mentioned on the Wrexham.com Forums around a freeze on new book orders being one of the measures.

Wrexham Council have now confirmed that no new books will be purchased during the current financial year.

Councillor Beverley Parry-Jones, Wrexham Council’s Lead Member for Corporate Services, said: “Within our library services, the decision not to purchase any more books during this financial year outside of our existing commitments has reluctantly been made.

“This should save us approximately £19k.

“We’ve already committed to spending around £130k on books for our libraries, and it’s worth noting that we’re still investing a lot of money in new reading material. We hope people will continue to enjoy and value their local library.

“The financial position for councils across the UK is extremely difficult at the moment.

“These decisions are not being taken lightly, however it’s important that we act now so we can help protect services going forward.”

Internal documents seen by Wrexham.com detail how some departments are now only recruiting to essential posts, and cancelling all overtime ‘with immediate effect’. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

Details of the depth of ‘efficiencies’ includes notice that staff are being told to ‘reduce stationery costs unless essential’ and training and other courses will be ‘essential only’. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

New supplies and services will also be ‘essential only’, and tighter controls appear in place on staff travel. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

The preliminary lists are part of per-department savings and income generation plans with all areas of the council taking “immediate actions” to mitigate the budget forecast.

This includes all departments identifying in-year savings of around 15% with ‘all areas of expenditure and income’ to be examined to ‘bring the budget back in line’ ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​.