NYCC Craven Area meeting 10/2/2011 - issues raised

Dear Councillors,

Saving Libraries

North Yorkshire County Council’s  (NYCC) budget needs to be reduced. The reduction appears to be to the services to the public. Are any reductions planned to the management structure of NYCC?

Statistical information on Local Authorities’ (LAs) pay and management indicates, that in 1997 the average number of people in the public sector with salaries above £50,000 was 7, by 2008 the number of people earning above £50,000 increased to 81. In the last 3 years, there has been an increase of 20% in middle management posts in LAs.

We council tax payers, pay for services to be delivered effectively and efficiently. Is this happening?

A Library Consultation has been launched, yet management at NYCC are already saying that they cannot afford to run any more than 18 libraries. What is the consultation about?

The “alternative ways of delivering the service” seems to be a short for libraries run by volunteers. Not only run, but funded as well.

Rural communities always seem to bear the brunt of any cuts. People in rural communities pay the same Council Tax and get very few services for it. Bentham, e.g., pays the highest Council tax in all of Craven. Now the rural communities have been selected for library cuts.  Some, what appears to be strange decisions, have been made about which libraries are closing and which are staying open. In Craven e.g. Crosshills is staying open where the cost per user, according to NYCC statistics, is £35.93 whereas at Bentham it is £26.52. Crosshills is 6.9 miles from nearest Skipton library, whereas Bentham is 11.3 miles from nearest Settle Library, with no direct public transport.

Libraries’ budget, as presented in the Consultation document, does not give any details of how this money is spent. Should we be asking, how much does it cost to run the actual libraries that deliver the service? How much of the budget is spent on non- front line (back office) library costs? Can reductions be made in these costs?  Can the management structure of the library service at NYCC be reduced? Can the supply chain of buying books be reduced? On average a book which cost a Council £1, has actual costs of £20 by the time it has gone through the supply chain.  It is possible to reduce these costs, as all these reductions have been achieved in Hillingdon, London for example.

You have been elected to represent us and secure the services for the communities you are representing. I would like to urge you to take a fresh look at how budgets can be reduced, including the one at County Hall. I would also like you to look at how the library budget can be reduced without closing libraries. I have made few suggestions and would hope that you will give them your consideration.

Yorkshire Post 4^th Feb reported

“Senior Councillors of NYCC have stressed that communities need to step in to run their local libraries or face losing the service.”

I sincerely hope, that you are not one of them and that you will do your utmost to make sure rural communities in North Yorkshire do not lose their much valued and needed libraries.

Irena Pritchard – Bentham library users group