Library closures explained

Lancashire’s libraries should be able to return to their normal opening hours once new staff recruited to plug gaps in the workforce take up their posts.

Lancashire County Council says it has now completed a six-month long restructure of its library network, during which several branches have been forced to close as a result of staff shortages.

A recent meeting of the authority’s full council heard that the problem had been particularly acute in parts of Preston, where Savick Library was closed in September for more than 40 percent of the time it should have been open.

Preston South West county councillor Mark Jewell said that amounted to the loss of 60 hours – and added that issues had continued to be felt throughout October and also at Ingol library in the city.   As so-called ‘Band C’ libraries, both should be open for 34 hours per week.

Cabinet member for education and skills Matthew Salter acknowledged what he described as the “regrettable” closures that had been occurring on “quite a number of occasions” across the county.

He said the shutdowns stemmed from there being a “lack of appetite for enough people to step up into management roles”, as well as a desire to offer staff greater “flexibility” in their hours in order to fit in with their “life circumstances”.

“During the restructure, we did receive internal advice not to recruit for certain positions to ensure that we could look after our staff who were in post [and] make sure that they could end up in the right positions for them,” County Cllr Salter explained.

As a result, he said, “some of the libraries have not been able to be as open as much as we’d want”.

The meeting was told that while the majority of library vacancies have now been filled, there would still be a period before all of the new recruits began work.

It has since been announced that Savick Library – on Birkdale Drive – will be closed once again because of a lack of staff on 25th and 31st October.

Kingsfold library in Penwortham was forced to close last Saturday for the same reason and, as well as Savick, the libraries at Ingol, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, Ribbleton, and Sharoe Green will also be temporarily closed on several days up to and including 1st November.

County Cllr Jewell said it was “encouraging” that the restructure was now over, but asked whether the authority could now “reassure” residents that their libraries would be “fully open” for their scheduled hours before Christmas.

County Cllr Salter said he could not offer a “guarantee” in case of potential unforeseen circumstances, but stressed the authority was “committed to delivering the library service in Preston…to the highest possible standard”.

Current library opening hours – and any short-term changes to them – can be found at:Find a library – Lancashire County Council