OPPOSITION councillors at Hampshire County Council have reacted angrily to plans by the cabinet to make staff cuts in its libraries. A presently unknown number of the 814 full and part-time library staff employed across the county face redundancy as part of a restructuring exercise expected to shave £1m off the service's £15m cost. The council has also set aside £250,000 from the service's book fund in case it needs a reserve to balance the books at the end of the financial year in April. The move by the Conservative-led cabinet, said to be due to shrinking library incomes making the present structure "unsustainable", has been attacked by the council's Liberal Democrat recreation and heritage spokesman. Peter Chegwyn claims that the county's libraries are already under used, and these cuts could force it into a "spiral of decline" which might ultimately result in the closure of some libraries. The county council has insisted some cuts are necessary in order to keep to three core library principles – no closures, no reductions in opening hours, and no further cuts to the book fund. It stressed it will seek voluntary redundancies wherever possible and make efforts to rehouse those displaced. Customer service will not be affected, it added, as the cuts will not hit desk staff dealing with the public. The county council also confirmed that the £250,000 put in reserve has not halted spending on libraries or materials, and will be returned to the book fund if not required at the end of the year. But Mr Chegwyn argued that the restructuring entailed "savage cuts" which he feared would have a "terrible impact on the library service across the county". Mr Chegwyn said: "Hampshire already spends less on books per head of population than any other county library service in the land. "So far, £500,000 has been taken out of the books fund over the past couple of years, and now another £250,000 is being cut. "The move to make 20 or more of Hampshire's 60 professional librarians redundant will mean that there will be less staff to serve the public and less books for library users to borrow. "It's a double whammy for a library service that has already suffered the largest drop – nine per cent last year – in library book borrowing of any English county. "These spending cuts are bound to result in a further drop in the number of people using Hampshire's libraries. There's a real danger that the library service will enter a spiral of decline which will be difficult to reverse. "Libraries provide a valuable service to the public, but it seems this service is under-valued by the Conservatives who run the county council. "With less staff and less books, it can only be a matter of time before we have less libraries. "Many of Hampshire's library buildings are old and in need of repair. I fear that the cuts in staffing and book-buying are just the thin edge of the wedge and library closures may well follow. "Liberal Democrat councillors have pledged to oppose the cuts and are calling on library users to voice their concern about any reductions in spending on the library service. "The decision to axe around 20 librarians is a particularly bitter blow just before Christmas," added Mr Chegwyn. "It will deprive the library service of dedicated professionals with a lifetime's experience and expertise who will be hard to replace. "The cuts are savage and short-sighted. We should be investing in improvements to Hampshire's libraries, not cutting staff and books." A Hampshire County Council spokesman said: "While we are reaping the benefits of the changes we have implemented over the last few years to buck national trends, in the current financial climate across local government we simply can't afford the current structure. "The library service's budget is about £17.5m gross, and when income is taken into account it's about £15.5m net. Of this amount, some £12m is spent on staff, leaving the remainder for buying books, paying premises costs, transport and so on. "The loss of audio visual income (DVDs, CDs and videos), plus other issues such as the rising cost of staff and contributions to the contacts centre, mean we will need to make savings to the tune of £1m. "We want to hold on to the three core library principles of no library closures, no reductions in opening hours, and no further cuts to the book fund. To achieve these, staff costs will have to be reduced. "To balance the library budget and continue in our transformation of Hampshire's libraries, we are conducting the restructure of the library service. "Our aim is to develop a new structure which is affordable, aligned to modern service delivery, and allows staff to work to their strengths. It is aimed at creating clear accountability, shorter communication lines, and increased ability to respond to customer needs. "To achieve this with a typical library budget, where staff costs are such a large element, cannot be done without looking at the number of people we employ. We had been freezing professional posts for sometime but the turnover of our staffing is not high. "We employ 814 full and part-time staff in the library service and, of those, we have approximately 60 professional librarian posts – this is the largest number in the country when compared with like- for-like authorities, hence we will be seeking to reduce this number." The spokesman added: "There will be no difference to the service received by the public when visiting their local library, as we do employ professional staff who are not qualified librarians, and we will not be reducing the number of library assistants who, on a day-to-day basis, are the people customers come into contact with. "We are still working on the restructure, therefore we cannot accurately provide a figure for the number of redundancies. "It is the county council's policy to minimise or eliminate redundancies wherever possible and we will seek volunteers for early retirement or voluntary redundancy, and will do our best to accommodate displaced staff elsewhere in the structure, or indeed elsewhere in the county. "Although £250,000 has been put in reserve, the financial situation will be revisited later in the financial year and, in the meantime, we are still buying new books, CDs and DVDs. "We are still maintaining our capital programme. Winchester Discovery Centre is being built now, we have a new library under construction in Whitchurch, one in planning for Bursledon, we have just opened Romsey Library, and we have an ongoing refurbishment programme. All of that work will continue. Councillor Margaret Snaith, the county council's executive member for recreation and heritage, said: "I fully understand that this is a period of uncertainty for staff and I feel for their concerns. "It is our aim to complete this restructure as quickly and as painlessly as we can. While we can't give a figure on redundancies at this stage, we can reassure staff that we will use every measure we can to minimise job losses. "We have consulted with staff and we will continue this process once we have finalised the detail of the restructuring." Definite figures for the restructure are expected to be released early next year.
