Completed petition Stop the Wholesale Hiving off of Public Libraries to the Voluntary Sector

Councils in Wales cannot be allowed to continue to get away with proposals to turn public libraries into volunteer managed operations without publishing costed options, or in some cases without even considering them. Many proposals are along the lines of 'you run the library yourselves or we will close it'. The Expert Review has stated that recommendation III should be applied with immediate effect, and has noted that local authorities have been restricted to identifying 'quick wins' in terms of meeting financial targets, but that these can have negative impacts, eg workforce skills gaps. The Review also notes that there is a need to review the longer term impacts and costs of the 'quick wins' and identify future interventions to mitigate the impacts. Our campaign group has taken this up with CyMAL who have indicated that making these changes retrospective will not be possible due to the time needed to pass new legislation. However, failing to implement this recommendation now will result in a further increase in the current tide of proposals to turn public libraries into community managed operations, based purely on the need to make budget savings and without even taking into account the needs of library users or alternative options. Unless this recommendation is implemented immediately there is likely to be a further increase in the flood of libraries turned over to volunteers as Councils rush to implement these changes before effective legislation is implemented. In the case of our own library in Rhoose, our consultation period began a week prior to the publication of the Expert Review but on requesting that they produce costed options in line with the Review recommendations Vale Council's response was that they were not required to act on the recommendations at this time. Councils will continue to flout the recommendations of the Expert Review until effective legislation is introduced.